Judges are crucial to the Coolidge Citizenship Challenge, a contest about American history, government and civics, with some additional questions about the presidency and life of Calvin Coolidge. The contest aims to draw middle and early high school students in challenged areas—or with challenged backgrounds—to grow and display their knowledge about these crucial topics in a friendly, encouraging, interview-styled quiz. By serving as a judge, you will be giving students across the country the opportunity to learn vital information about our country.
The preliminary rounds of the competition will be virtual via Zoom and will take place September 17-24 to overlap with Constitution Week. You and a student will be joined on the call by a Coolidge Foundation staff member who will address any technical issues and score the quiz. Prior to the call we will provide you with 25 questions randomly selected from the 108 questions in our Challenge study guide.
Following the Q and A portion of the quiz, a student may elect to take part in an extra-credit opportunity by reciting from memory one of the following: 1) excerpts from Coolidge’s speech, “The Inspiration of the Declaration of Independence”; 2) excerpts from Coolidge’s letter to Charles F. Gardner; or 3) the names of the President of the United States in order. We will provide you with all three. They are also part of our the study guide which you can view by clicking here.
If you are interested in serving as a judge, please email Colleen Stamos at cstamos@coolidgefoundation.org or call 202-827-4270.