DC Students Combat Misinformation Through Essay Competition

The MLK Holiday DC Student Essay Competition is fostering youth civic engagement while honoring the civil rights leader’s legacy, challenging District students to explore contemporary issues through writing.

“I don’t think we as adults have done a great job of making young people see themselves in the picture of being part of the solution to help change society,” said Norman Nixon, president of Mayor’s Youth Leadership Institute Alumni Association (MYLIAA), which co-sponsors the annual competition with MLK Holiday DC.

The competition, established in 2014, encourages students to research important civic topics while developing critical writing skills that will serve them throughout their education and careers. This year’s prompts aligned with the 2026 MLK Holiday DC theme—”The Struggle is Real. The Fight is Still!”—tasking elementary students with writing about the importance of voting while middle and high schoolers tackled D.C. statehood.

These topics highlight ongoing civil rights challenges in Washington, where residents didn’t gain the right to vote in presidential elections until 1961 and still lack full congressional representation despite paying federal taxes.

“We don’t enjoy the same rights as every citizen in the United States—to be able to elect two senators and congressional representatives,” Nixon explained. “And we still have to pay federal taxes.”

For 14-year-old Hans Spritzer, a freshman at BASIS Washington D.C., the competition provided a platform to articulate his thoughts on these critical issues. “The idea that people would be able to hear the message I was spreading was a reason I entered,” he said.

The initiative serves a crucial purpose in an era when one in three teens are “almost constantly” on social media, according to Pew Research Center. Organizers believe the competition helps students develop media literacy skills essential for distinguishing fact from fiction.

“I’ve seen social media determine many young people’s stances on political situations without much bearing on how serious things are,” Hans told The Informer. Though active on social media himself, Hans has learned to take online information “with a grain of salt” until conducting further research.

Pamela Johnson, founder of youth voter advocacy program Your Voice Matters, highlighted the challenges young people face in navigating today’s information landscape. “It’s very difficult to rely on what is on social media, and young people may not know enough about a particular topic to make those judgments,” Johnson said. “But it’s clearly influential and an incredibly important way for young people to communicate.”

Nixon sees the essay competition as a tool to combat misinformation while building research skills. “There’s a lot of gaslighting that happens,” he said. “We’ve got to teach young people to research and fact-check stuff before you jump out there with it.”

The program’s civic engagement focus is especially timely during an election year. Voter turnout among 18-29 year-olds remained below 50% in the 2024 presidential elections, according to data from the Civics Center and Tufts Circle.

Johnson, who also leads the National Women’s Foundation in D.C., emphasized that high school voter registration efforts are particularly important. “College students today, most of them are registered to vote… but high school students are registered at a much lower level,” she explained. “The interesting thing is with high school students, if they are registered, they actually vote.”

Through his research for the competition, Hans gained deeper insights into D.C.’s unique political status. “I learned more about the diversity of D.C., how large the population is, and just how deep the movement to turn D.C. to a state goes,” he said. “Just how many people have fought for it and it still has not been successful.”

Nixon has been encouraged by the thoughtfulness displayed in students’ submissions. “Sometimes you can think young people aren’t really deep thinkers about things. But when we go through these essays, it opens our eyes and says that a lot of these young people really have some great ideas.”

For Hans, participating reinforced the importance of civic knowledge for young people. “Eventually, the youth are going to be the people contributing to our society,” he said, “and if they’re uneducated and don’t understand basic concepts regarding the U.S., then they’re not prepared to go into the future.”