2025-26 Garaventa Center High School Essay Contest

We are pleased to announce the 2025/26
Essay Contest Prompt      

The Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life and American Culture at the University of Portland exists to explore and deploy the fruits of faith, reason and imagination that constitute the Catholic intellectual tradition. We are especially committed to awakening and celebrating those gifts in young people, hence this annual essay contest, in which participants are encouraged to integrate faith, reason and the intellectual craft of writing a personal essay (i.e. this is not a fiction writing contest). 

Inspired by the quote “To live wonder-smitten with reality is the gladdest way to live” (Maria Popova, from The Universe in Verse) our 2025/26 essay contest prompt is:

Double rainbows, the opening notes of a new favorite song, that first glance with a crush—we are often smitten by the exceptional, the extraordinary. But reality is largely the ordinary, the everyday. Describe an experience that uncovers the wonderful in something overlooked—an experience that turned your head, stirred your heart, or moved your heels.

For important contest information go to HS Essay Contest Flyer.

The most successful personal essays convey something true and provide readers with a bit of emotional “oomph.” While many people know that the world “catholic” means “universal,” it may also be helpful to note the word’s Greek roots: “Katho” + “Houlis,” which means “toward unity.” By definition, then, Catholic education strives to move learners away from fragmentation and toward wholeness and integration.

English teachers, take note: coaching students through this process contributes evidence of mastery of a number of Common Core Literacy Standards, beginning with CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.1, 12.2 and 12.3.

The essay contest is open to all current juniors in a Catholic high school in Alaska, Hawai’i, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington, as well as Holy Cross high schools in the U.S.

A committee at the University will read all entries to select the top two awards ($500 cash prize each) and three honorable mentions ($250 cash prize each).

All submissions must be made via email. Please send your school’s submissions (up to four per school) to garaventa@up.edu by Monday, February 16, 2026. Word documents only, no PDFs. If you have any questions, please contact the Garaventa Center at 503.943.7702 or garaventa@up.edu.