Paging all content creators!
Thomas Sowell is a cultural icon and an intellectual inspiration for generations of Americans. To celebrate the immense contributions of this legendary scholar, the Hoover Institution proudly announces the 2025 Thomas Sowell Creator Competition, open to all content creators.
With your creativity and skill, show us an essential lesson from Thomas Sowell that Americans need to remember today.
Creators: We want to see what you can do! Share an original lesson based on the works and wisdom of Thomas Sowell for a chance to win a $5,000 cash prize, have Hoover amplify your content, and attend an upcoming celebration of Thomas Sowell at the Hoover Institution on the campus of Stanford University.
Check out the full competition rules and guidelines below.
About the Competition
What lesson or teaching from Thomas Sowell do Americans most need to learn or remember today? Utilizing ideas and quotations from Sowell’s publications and public appearances, please create a compelling video illuminating this lesson.
Create a piece of content with the potential for going viral that succinctly conveys an essential insight from Thomas Sowell’s work that has direct applicability to an important cultural or public policy issue.
As Sowell wrote in the preface to his 1986 Hoover Institution Press essay collection Education: Assumptions Versus History, "Education, in the broadest sense, is each generation's legacy to the next. How well the next generation is prepared to carry on after us determines the fate of the nation, and of the civilization it represents, far more than the officials and events that command the headlines of the day."
Acceptable Content Formats
Examples of acceptable digital content submissions include but are not limited to:
- Animated or narrative content
- Claymation or stop motion techniques
- Mini-documentary-style edited video with your own narration
- Other creative video-based explanatory content
Please note that a mere video monologue will not suffice for this contest; such an entry based predominantly on text should be submitted for our Thomas Sowell essay competition.
Entry Max Duration: 3 minutes
Submissions exceeding the set time limit will be disqualified.
Eligibility:
The creator competition is open to any student or adult. All content submissions should use the English language. While international applicants are welcome, the Hoover Institution cannot assist with obtaining visas or arranging travel for foreign residents/citizens in the event they are selected as winners and invited to attend an upcoming celebration of Thomas Sowell at the Hoover Institution.
Deadline:
Please submit your content by 11:59pm Pacific Time on August 31, 2025. Submissions will not be accepted after this deadline.
Submitting Your Entry:
Please submit your entry via the file upload tool on the final page of your application within the AwardForce website.
https://sowellcontentcontest.awardsplatform.com
Contest Rules:
- Appropriateness: All submitted content must be suitable and appropriate for online distribution via Hoover channels and for presentation to a general audience at an upcoming celebration of Thomas Sowell’s scholarship.
- Plagiarism and AI—IMPORTANT: All content submitted by you must represent your own original work. Submission of any plagiarized content will result in immediate disqualification from this contest. Any use of artificial intelligence programs to create your content is strictly prohibited.
- Sources and References: Indicate the sources for your references to the work of Thomas Sowell or other scholars, either within your video(s) or on a references page posted in the same Google Drive folder where you share your content submissions within your application
Contest Judging:
Content will be judged by the following weighted criteria:
- Effectiveness and originality of the lesson presented: 30%
- Demonstrated depth of engagement with Thomas Sowell’s work and ideas: 25%
- Style, production values, and quality of the content submitted: 20%
- Alignment of your lesson with Thomas Sowell’s thought and the mission of the Hoover Institution: 25%
Judging will be conducted by representatives of the Hoover Institution. Judges may include Hoover Institution fellows, research assistants, or staff. All judging will be blind; judges will not know the name or other personal details of the creators of the content they are evaluating.
Contest Prize:
Winners of the creator competition will be notified by the Hoover Institution via the email address you provide within your contest entry. The competition winner will receive a cash prize of $5,000. Winners will also be invited to attend an upcoming celebration of Thomas Sowell at the Hoover Institution in California, with their personal travel and lodging expenses covered, and will receive public promotion of their content by Hoover social media accounts. The Hoover Institution cannot provide any travel planning or international travel assistance for contest winners.
