2023 HUHPR Young Scholars Essay Contest Winners
3rd Place - Chloe Li (Milton Academy, Junior)
1st Place - Mishika Bhatia (Rock Canyon HS, Sophomore)
2nd Place - Sahngwie Yim (The Harker School, Junior)
The Harvard Undergraduate Health Policy Review Young Scholars Essay Contest
Terms, Conditions, Submission Form
The Harvard Undergraduate Health Policy Review (“HUHPR”) is excited to announce the inaugural HUHPR Young Scholars Essay Contest, in which we hope to highlight outstanding writing by high-school and undergraduate students on topics related to healthcare, health ethics, and/or health policy.
Purpose: With this essay contest, we hope to promote discussions of health policy among younger students while providing them with the opportunity to be published in the HUHPR. Examples of essay structure and style can be found on our website under the “Perspectives” section.
Process: All submissions will be evaluated on a 55-point scale, with five points allocated to each of the following criteria: Topic, Introduction, Structure/Transitions, Use of Evidence, Analysis of Evidence, Overall Coherence of Argument, Tone, Writing Conventions Adherence to the HUHPR Style, Citations, and Clarity. Please see our rubric in more detail here. Each submission will be read and evaluated by at least two HUHPR Masthead members, and the top ten (10) scoring essays will be subject to a Masthead-wide vote to select first, second, third place and any honorable mentions. Winning pieces will be selected from both the high school pool and undergraduate pool of submissions. Decisions will be released by January 1, 2024.
Awards: First place, second place, and third place winners will all be awarded with recognition on the home page of our website, a certificate shipped to their home, and publication in our next issue accompanied by a DOI. We will also select a number of honorable mentions, which will receive a certificate but may or may not be published due to editorial capacity.
Eligibility: Due to issues with our payment processing system, we can only accept submissions from high school and undergraduate students in the United States. However, undergraduate students in universities outside of the U.S are welcome to submit a piece to the regular HUHPR external submissions portal. Although this submission will not be counted toward the Contest, the piece could still potentially be published in HUHPR alongside our other articles.
Entry Fee: The entrance fee for the HUHPR Young Scholars Essay Contest is $15. If you have an extenuating financial circumstance, please follow the instructions linked in our submission form. Our goal is to ensure that anyone who wishes to participate is able to, regardless of financial status.
Submission: Please submit your submissions to this form. The deadline for the Essay Contest is January 1, 2024, 11:59 PM EST. By submitting an entry, you agree that the HUHPR may edit, adapt, abridge, translate or publish your entry at its sole discretion. By submitting, you also affirm that your work is wholly my own, has not been published previously in whole or in part, has not been edited by nor includes content from any generative AI source (e.g., ChatGPT), you as the author take full responsibility for its accuracy. You must also declare any potential conflicts of interest, funding for the preparation of the manuscript or any writing/editing support you received as part of the submission.
Rules for submission: Your article must be at or under 1,000 words, including title, text, in-text references, but excluding references or acknowledgements. You must include in-text citations and endnote references in Vancouver style. Your article must be written in standard English. Your article must relate in some way to health policy, health law, bioethics, health care or public health. To enter, you must be a current, registered secondary school (i.e., high school) student. Reach out to huhpr.info@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.
Citation/References format: References should be in Vancouver format.
This year’s prompt: In up to 1000 words, write an argumentative essay about a specific issue in healthcare, health ethics, or health policy that is ideally in tune with current events. Potential topic ideas include:
- Reproductive rights.
- Racial disparities in healthcare.
- Drug decriminalization.
- Artificial intelligence in medicine.
- Anything else related to health policy, domestically or globally.
This year's Essay Contest has concluded. Please check back next cycle.
The field of dermatology has long overlooked a significant challenge: racial disparities in diagnosis and treatment. Skin conditions affect individuals of all ethnic backgrounds, yet medical education in dermatology often falls short of addressing the unique nuances of conditions manifesting on darker skin, or SOC (skin of color). This oversight contributes to a higher likelihood of misdiagnosis for people of color, thereby perpetuating a cycle of unequal care.