Sacramento, CA…The Sacramento Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility is pleased to announce that its 2017 High School Scholarship Essay Contest is now open to high school seniors in Sacramento and surrounding counties (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, San Joaquin, Solano, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba). A total of $15,000 in scholarship money will be awarded to 12 students. The prompt for this year’s contest is the following quotation from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”

To enter the contest, high school seniors must submit an original essay of 500 words or fewer describing their thoughts about FDR’s words. The deadline for essay submission is midnight on Saturday, March 11, 2017. Full contest details and the link to the essay contest entry form are available on the Scholarship Essay Contest Page of the PSR/Sacramento website.

The 10 students who are chosen as finalists will present their essays orally at a dinner on Sunday, April 30, at the the DoubleTree by Hilton, 2001 Point West Way, in Sacramento. A distinguished panel of judges will ask questions of the students and choose the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. The first place winner will receive a $3,000 scholarship, second place a $2,500 scholarship, and 3rd place a $2,000 scholarship. The other seven finalists will all receive $1,000 each, and two alternate finalists will receive $250 each.

This is the 13th consecutive year that PSR/Sacramento has offered its annual high school scholarship essay contest. Including this year’s awards, PSR/Sacramento will have awarded over $150,000 in scholarship money.

Additional information about the contest and the essays of past contest winners are available on the PSR/Sacramento website at www.sacpsr.org. For more information, email info@sacpsr.org or call (916) 202-0567.