By Merritt Frey, Executive Director

March 31 at midnight. That’s when the door slams shut on our Make the Case for Caring Essay Contest. The contest asks high school students to make a compelling, short argument for why we should invest in educating children in a far-off country like Mali.

Essays are arriving in our inbox daily. It is exciting to see the different angles students take to support their case. Some of us love facts and figures – for example, for each additional year of education a child’s future earnings increase 10 to 20 percent, allowing them to lift themselves out of poverty.

Others love stories. Stories of how their own lives (or their parents’ lives) were changed by education. Or stories of Mali Rising students (gleaned from the Our Kids page) who are benefiting from education. Or stories of inspiring leaders like Malala.

Still others make their case based on what is right. What is fair. And what is good. They inspire us with arguments about the larger purposes of life, and ask us to simply put ourselves in the shoes of the other.

What would you write? How would you make your case?

If you’re a high school student, you still have 31 days to make that case. Read up on the contest and submit your essay.

If you’re an adult, you can still get involved as a reviewer. We need volunteers to review batches of 25 essays each (300-500 words each, so about a page) and score them. These scores will be used to identify our 25 finalists. Contact me to volunteer.

Or you can kick back and wait until May when we’ll share the top three essays with everyone on this blog. I can already guarantee you they will be worth reading!