Grand Prize: Choose your own adventure for two: An all-expense paid day sailing or hiking in the Bay Area. Transportation, a picnic lunch and dinner in a restaurant included. The day can be scheduled at your convenience.

Sailing on the Bay: Anna Mills can arrange for a sailing trip on a 32-foot boat leaving from the Berkeley marina. Bring a friend for a day on the bay. Depending on weather and winds, we'll cruise by Alcatraz, Pier 39, Angel Island, the Golden Gate, sea lions and birds. We'll eat lunch and make hot chocolate on board. No experience on boats needed for this adventure. An experienced sailor will teach us how to stay safe and enjoy.

Hiking: Anna Mills and Lizzie Brock are familiar with many spectacular hiking trails within an hour of CCSF and eager to lead a day trip to the spot of your choice. Choices include Point Reyes, Mount Tamalpais, Muir Woods, and other famous natural wonders visited by tourists from around the world. Bring a friend.

Topic: Students choose an environmental organization or on-campus effort and analyze how its activities address a problem or implement a recommendation identified in Affluenza. View the essay prompt here.

Research on Earth Day, 4/22: Earth Day on the City College campus promises to be more visible and better organized than ever this year. The theme is "Toward Zero Waste" and there will be tables with information about many outside green organizations, City College student groups like the Bikery and Food Not Garbage, and City College initiatives like the new composting program. "Passports" can be downloaded which ask the students to research and answer questions at the tables and receive a free custom-made t-shirt or reusable bag if they get four stamps on their passports.

Earth Day is the perfect opportunity for students to identify and research an organization they want to write about. They will be able to pick up flyers and talk one on one with representatives of each organization or effort.

Students who cannot attend Earth Day can research organizations online.

Judging: The instructor of each participating class will select the top three to four essays from that class and submit them to Anna Mills and Lizzie Brock, who will be coordinating the judging. A committee of CCSF instructors, including instructors from outside the English department, will judge the winners. Judges will not rank their own students' essays.

• Instructors must submit their top essays by May 12
• The winners will be announced May 14 so instructors can notify students on the day of their final exam.
  

Publication: TBD. Winning entries may be published on this website (depending on student approval) or in the Guardsman.

Goals of the Contest : We (English instructors Anna Mills and Lizzie Brock) came up with the idea of an Earth Day essay contest this spring for English 93 students. We hope to tie the course content to current events, inspire students to familiarize themselves with actual and possibly local environmental and environmental justice endeavors, and create incentive for better writing by offering recognition and reward. Read the overview below and email Anna or Lizzie for more information.