Georgia Fire Sprinkler Association

Asa Tuten Memorial – GFSA Essay Contest

The 2019 Asa Tuten Memorial – GFSA Essay Contest Is On!  1,000 words may be all that stand between you and up to $1500 in a scholarship!

2019 CONTEST INFORMATION

Applicant Eligibility Requirements
Essay Requirements
Essay Theme
Bibliography Requirements
Plagiarism Notice
Dates and Deadline
Judging Criteria
Prizes
Winner Notification
Frequently Asked Questions
APPLICATION PROCESS

2019 Contest Information

Read complete contest information before applying. Please read all requirements carefully. Entries that do not meet ALL requirements will be automatically disqualified from the contest without notification to the student.

Applicant Eligibility Requirements

The Asa Tuten Memorial – GFSA State Scholarship Essay Contest is open to high school seniors in Georgia who plan to further their education at a college/university or certified trade school in the United States. The scholarship is not based on financial need. Relatives of GFSA board members may not enter.

You must be a high school senior during the 2018-2019 school year who will attend a college/university or trade school in the United States starting with the fall 2019 semester.

Home-schooled students may apply as long as your course of study is equivalent to that of a senior in high school.

Essay Requirements

All applicants must submit a text-only (no graphics included) essay between 700-1,000 words addressing the theme specified by the GFSA. Each essay must be an original work written by the applicant and must be accompanied by a bibliography citing all sources of information used. Only entries submitted through to the GFSA email address as stated in the application process are accepted. Only one essay per applicant is allowed.

The Essay Theme for 2019:

Fire Sprinklers – Past, Present, and Future. Discuss the origins of the industry, where we currently stand, and how new and upcoming technology could be incorporated to bring fire sprinklers into the 21st century.

Bibliography Requirements (a.k.a. Works Cited)

The bibliography is the list of sources you used when writing and/or researching your essay. Essays without a bibliography will not be accepted. When citing a source within the essay itself, place the number of the source as it corresponds to your bibliography in brackets ([1], [2], etc.) instead of typing the entire bibliography entry every time.

Dates and Deadline

2/1/2019  Essay Topic and Contest Information will be posted on the GFSA Web Site and Announcements will go out to schools.

3/18/2019  Deadline for Submitting Essays

4/16/2019  Contest Winners will be notified

Contest is limited to first 500 eligible entries received through the GFSA email address.

Entries will be accepted from February 1, 2019 until 11:59 p.m. (EST), March 18, 2019.  Late arrivals will not be accepted.

Judging Criteria

Members of the automatic fire sprinkler industry, including those in the educational and professional/installation fields, judge entries. Essays are judged in four areas, and particular consideration is given to how well the essay addresses the specified contest theme:

Content
Accuracy
Creativity/Originality
Spelling/Grammar/Punctuation

Prizes

A total of $3,250 is awarded to three winners.

First place national winner receives a scholarship of $1,500.

Second place national winner receives a scholarship of $1,000.

Third place winner receives a scholarship of $750.

The scholarship is paid directly to the educational institution in the student’s account.

Winner Notification

Winners of the scholarships will be notified through their high schools via email.  All entries must have a functioning email address for an administrator within their high school.

All winners are required to provide a recommendation letter from a teacher/guidance counselor/mentor other than a parent upon notification of his/her prize. If a student does not provide a recommendation letter within the time frame given, he/she forfeits the prize. All information provided by the student is subject to verification by the GFSA.

Winners’ names and essays will be posted on the GFSA web site in April 2019.

Application Process

Applications will only be accepted online via the GFSA email address. Student must provide all information requested to be able to submit his/her entry.

Step 1: Read all contest information. You must agree that you have read the information and understand it before you can proceed to submit your essay. Entries that do not meet ALL requirements will be automatically disqualified from the contest without notification to the student.

Step 2: Type your essay and bibliography in any word processing program and save it as a text-only document.

Note: Do not include your name or address in the body of the essay. All special formatting/characters such as indents, italics, underlines etc. will be eliminated when the document is saved as text-only. Punctuation characters such as commas, quotation marks, etc. stay the same.

Step 3: On a separate page at the beginning of the document, fill out the following student information.

Students Full Name:
Home Street Address:
City, State, Zip Code:
Home Phone (with area code):
Home email Address:
Parent/Guardian Name:
Parent/Guardian Contact Number (with area code):
Your School Name:
School Street Address:
School City, State, Zip Code:
School Phone (with area code):
Principal’s or Counselor’s Name:
Principal’s or Counselor’s email address:
Anticipated Date of Graduation:

Step 4: Email the student information, essay and bibliography to gfsa.essay.contest.2019@gmail.com

The subject line must contain the text “Fire Sprinkler Essay“

Due to the number of entries we receive, we cannot contact each entrant. Only the TOP THREE WINNERS will be contacted via email or phone in April 2019. Winners’ names will also be placed on the GFSA website in April 2019.