The Coolidge Foundation and Seeking Educational Excellence invite students in middle school and high schoolers entering ninth or tenth grades to participate in the Coolidge Citizenship Challenge, a nationwide contest on citizenship and civics. Show your knowledge of the United States Constitution, American civics, and President Calvin Coolidge, our country’s thirtieth president!
The first 50 students who register for, prepare for, and participate in the competition will receive a $50 gift card in appreciation for their hard work. Our Study Guide and flashcards will help you prepare. The Study Guide has one hundred and eight questions and the answers to each of those questions. For each round of the competition, students will be asked twenty-five questions randomly selected from the Study Guide. The preliminary round of the competition will be virtual, on a Zoom interview call with a single contestant, a contest judge, and a Foundation staff member. The judge will ask the contestant twenty-five questions. A Foundation staff member will score the answers. Preliminary rounds will take place on Zoom September 17-24, 2021.
Top contestants in the preliminary round will be brought to Washington, D.C., along with a parent or guardian, for the final round of competition, a civics-themed tour of our nation’s capital, and the awards ceremony. The final round of the Challenge will take place November 11-13, 2021. The winner of the final round will receive $500. The second place winner will receive $300 and the third place winner will receive $200.
As described in our Study Guide, students may earn extra credit by memorizing and reciting portions of either a speech or a letter written by President Calvin Coolidge, or by reciting the names of the presidents of the United States. For extra credit opportunities, see pages 15 through 18 of our Study Guide. If you would like to hear model recitations of our extra credit opportunities, as delivered by Charles Love, Executive Director, Seeking Educational Excellence, click the links below:
- Recitation of excerpt from “Inspiration of the Declaration”
- Recitation of Coolidge’s letter to Charles Gardner
- Recitation of the presidents of the United States
To register for the Coolidge Citizenship Challenge, please fill out the form below.
To download the Coolidge Citizenship Challenge Study Guide, click here. An interactive version of the Study Guide is available on the platform Quizlet at this link.
For more information and for any questions, please call 202-827-4270 or email Colleen Stamos at cstamos@coolidgefoundation.org.