Competitions · Humanities and writing · Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest
The Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest.
Art, writing, film, performance or multimedia - five ways to answer the same question, and you pick the one you are actually good at. Ages eleven to eighteen, worldwide.
What makes it useful
One question, five ways to answer it.
Most competitions here choose a medium and then look for students who work in it. This one chooses a subject and lets the student bring whatever they do.
Art or writing
Visual work in any form, or written work - fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry. Both are full categories with their own judging.
Film, performance or multimedia
A film, a performance, or a piece combining forms. A student who dances, acts or edits has a genuine route in.
All answering the same annual question
The theme changes each year - recent ones have asked how the ocean nourishes, protects and inspires you, and what your relationship with the natural world actually is.
And it wants your connection, not a report
The prompts ask about the entrant’s own relationship to the subject - whether they live on a coast or a thousand miles inland. A researched essay about ocean acidification is not what is being asked for.
At a glance
The essentials.
Bow Seat is a United States environmental non-profit which runs this contest annually for students worldwide, so that young people learn about environmental issues through making creative work rather than through being told about them.
- Who can enter
- Secondary students worldwide, aged 11 to 18
- Junior division
- Ages 11 to 14
- Senior division
- Ages 15 to 18
- Written entries, junior
- No more than 720 words
- Written entries, senior
- No more than 1,250 words
- Forms accepted
- Art, writing, film, performance and multimedia
- Writing forms
- Short fiction and creative non-fiction among them
- The theme
- Set each year, with sub-themes published so entrants can find one that resonates
- Deadline
- Early June
- Cash awards
- Up to $1,000
- Awarded to date
- The organisers report more than $783,000 in awards over the life of the contest
- Beyond the prizes
- Eligibility for the Future Blue Youth Council, a group of young people working on the organisation’s mission and helping their peers advocate for the environment
The two divisions
Different word limits, same question.
The split is by age, and the only published difference in requirements is the length allowed for written work.
Junior, ages 11 to 14
Written entries up to 720 words. A short, focused piece rather than an essay.
Senior, ages 15 to 18
Written entries up to 1,250 words. Still short, and still not room for a research paper.
Both are judged within their division
An eleven-year-old is not competing against a seventeen-year-old, which makes the junior division a genuine entry point.
And the other forms have their own requirements
Art, film, performance and multimedia each carry their own specifications - check the current guidance for the form you are entering.
The Youth Council
The part that lasts longer than the prize.
Beyond the cash awards, the contest opens a route into the organisation itself.
The Future Blue Youth Council
A diverse group of young people who work together to advance Bow Seat’s mission and to help their peers advocate for the environment.
Entrants become eligible for it
It is described as a special opportunity available to participants, which makes the contest a way in rather than a one-off submission.
Which is worth more than a certificate
For a student genuinely interested in environmental work, ongoing involvement with an organisation is a different order of outcome from a prize.
And it costs nothing extra to be considered
Entering the contest is the qualification.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares a Bow Seat entry.
A personal question, a short limit and a free choice of form. The choices matter more than the execution.
Choosing the form honestly
Five options and no advantage to any of them. A student who draws should draw; one who edits video should film. Entering in writing because it feels more serious is the wrong reason.
Finding the personal connection
The prompts ask what the ocean or the natural world means to the entrant. That is answerable from an inland city - the organisers say so explicitly - but it needs thinking about.
Working to 720 or 1,250 words
Short. A written entry has room for one idea told well, and nothing else.
And reading the sub-themes
The organisers publish sub-themes so entrants can find the angle that resonates. Reading them before choosing is the fastest way to a specific idea.
Why Hanlin
Preparation for Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest at Hanlin is taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
Programme formats
Five ways this is taught.
Group size is the whole difference between these. It decides how much of the tutor's attention a student gets and how far the course can bend to them, so it is worth choosing rather than accepting.
| Format | Group size | What it suits |
|---|---|---|
| One-to-one | One student | Content, pace and emphasis set by what this student actually needs rather than by a syllabus. The only format that can be rebuilt mid-course. |
| Small group | Three to eight | Opens at three. Frequent discussion, and the tutor can slow down or move on according to what the group has absorbed. Most students chasing a higher award are taught in this one. |
| Class | Eight to twelve | Taught by the subject lead or a medal coach. Less back-and-forth, so it suits a student who will say when something is unclear. |
| Large class | Ten to twenty | For students in the middle of the placement range, and a way to try a competition before committing. Students often move to a small group or to one-to-one afterwards. |
| Past-paper class | No cap | Past papers worked through in sequence in the weeks before the sitting. Free to students already enrolled. |
Course length for Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest is set after a placement paper. The gap between where a student is and what the paper asks for is what the course has to close, and that gap is not the same for two students in the same year group.
How it runs
Six steps, four people on your side.
The same process for every student, so that nothing depends on one tutor remembering to do it.
Step 1Pre-course assessment
A placement paper before anything is booked, so the course tier is chosen on evidence rather than on a year group.
Step 2Tutor matching
A subject tutor is matched to the result, and their full background is provided before you agree to it.
Step 3Plan and group
A study group opens with four people on one student: the tutor, a planner, a supervisor and an academic manager.
Step 4Scheduled teaching
The teaching office sets the timetable around the competition date and school term, and teaching begins.
Step 5After-class reports
What was covered, and how the student handled it, reported after every lesson.
Step 6Homework follow-up
The teaching assistant and the form teacher both check that homework is done, which is where most preparation quietly fails.
Free resource pack
Past questions and writing pack
The same material our own Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest students work from. Scan the code, say what you need, and an advisor sends it.
Tell an advisor which competition and year group, and the material comes back the same day. Free, and you do not have to enrol in anything. If we do not already hold what you need, we will go and find it.
- PDFEvery past question the competition has set
- PDFShortlisted and published essays, to calibrate the standard
- PDFStructure, referencing and word-count guide
- PDFEntry checklist and the dates for the current cycle
Teaching team
Who would teach it.
Three of the twenty-two tutors on the published Hanlin roster - the ones whose subject this is.
Lu
Master's in education from the University of Pennsylvania and a double major in psychology and philosophy at Mount Holyoke. Cross-cultural teaching experience across China and the US, with research work in child and adolescent development, cognition, and international students' identity.
Yang
Educated at American Heritage School, then English literature and philosophy at the University of British Columbia and a master's in language education at Toronto. Eleven years in North America, with a close working knowledge of the international curricula and overseas admissions.
Zhang
Master's in cognitive science at UC San Diego on full scholarship, after double honours in neurobiology and behaviour and in cognitive science at UC Davis. Ten years overseas, a perfect TOEFL speaking score, and named an outstanding education scholar at UCSD.
Student results
What Hanlin students got.
Taken from Hanlin's published record of student honours and rewritten in English. Figures are as the organisers reported them.
Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest
- 2020A prose winner
The full record, across every subject and year, is on the student honours page.
Where it is taught
Hanlin learning centres.
Teaching runs from Hanlin's own centres in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou, and online for students elsewhere.
Talk to an advisor
Everything Hanlin does for Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest, in one conversation.
Entry, planning, coaching and the past papers. An advisor will tell you which of these a student actually needs, including when the answer is none of them.
Competition entry and planning
Which competitions suit this student, in what order, and by when - then we handle the registration, including the ones that can only be entered through a school or a centre.
Competition coaching
Taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
International curriculum tutoring
IB, AP, A-Level, IGCSE and the US high school curriculum, taught alongside school and timed around the exam calendar.
Competition past papers, free
A large library of past papers, mark schemes and syllabus breakdowns across every competition on this site. No charge and no enrolment.
Scan to add an advisor
Say which competition or course you are asking about. Replies in Chinese or English.
Or call +86 21 6352 6630FAQ
The Ocean Awareness Contest, briefly answered.
What students and families ask before entering.
Who can enter?
Secondary students worldwide aged 11 to 18, in a junior division for ages 11 to 14 and a senior division for ages 15 to 18.
What forms can I submit?
Art, writing, film, performance or multimedia. All five answer the same annual question.
How long can written entries be?
No more than 720 words in the junior division and no more than 1,250 in the senior division.
What is the theme?
It changes each year, and sub-themes are published alongside it so entrants can find an angle that resonates. Recent themes have asked how the ocean nourishes, protects and inspires you, and what your connection with the natural world is.
Do I have to live near the sea?
No. The organisers state explicitly that the question can be answered whether you are coastal or inland.
When is the deadline?
Early June.
What can you win?
Cash awards of up to $1,000. The organisers report having given more than $783,000 in awards over the life of the contest.
What is the Future Blue Youth Council?
A group of young people who work together to advance Bow Seat’s mission and help their peers advocate for the environment. Contest participants become eligible for it.
Who runs it?
Bow Seat, a United States environmental non-profit, which holds the contest annually for students worldwide.
Related
Other environmental and creative competitions.
What students enter alongside Bow Seat.
Bow Seat enquiries
Whatever the student makes, there is a category for it.
Five forms answering one personal question, judged within two age divisions, with a route into the organisation afterwards. Tell us what the student makes and an advisor will help find the angle.