Submissions open January 13 – April 25, 2025
Winners announced May 6, 2025
How can great leaders unite others?
Reflect on specific examples – either from your own personal experience or from leaders you have observed – of using leadership to bring people together. Share stories or examples that demonstrate how leaders build trust and cohesion in your school and community.
We will be featuring winning videos on our social media channels, so be sure to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Check out other student speech contest winners and finalists selected from 2016-2024.
Following the submission deadline, several regional winners will be chosen by a panel of judges. The regional winners will receive a special certificate and will be featured on the Leader in Me blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube Channel.
From the group of regional winners, seven (7) grand prize winners will be selected by a panel of judges using these criteria:
Please note that to be eligible for the popular vote contest, speeches must be centered on the prompt. The judges have sole discretion to disqualify any popular vote contest entry that does not fulfill ALL requirements of the speech contest and/or the prompt.
The purpose of a leadership grant is to inspire and enable you to be life-ready leaders by using the grant to make a difference within your circle of influence. What you do with your leadership grant is up to you, but here are a few suggestions to make a difference as a leader:
• Identify and fix a problem that exists at school.
• Donate the money to a charitable contribution.
• Organize a service project in the community.
• Purchase personal school supplies.
• Help a class member or family in need.
• Contribute to a college/university fund.
This entry video or visual artwork is led by and features an individual Leader in Me student.
This entry video or visual artwork is led by and features a classroom, small team of students, or even an entire school. All students involved in the entry must be featured.
All parts of the contest prompt are answered with a photograph of your visual art piece like a sculpture, painting, graphic design, comic, etc.
A short video (1 minute or less) is submitted along with the photograph of the visual art piece explaining how the visual art piece encompasses all aspects of the contest prompt.
All parts of the contest prompt are answered with a traditional speech, song, poem, or any form of spoken entry. This entry video is no longer than 3 minutes long.
✓ 普通话(Mandarin Simplified) |
✓ čeština(Czech) |
✓ latviešu(Latvian) |
✓ हिंदी(Hindi) |
✓ Deutsche(German) |
✓ Español(Spanish) |
✓ Монгол хэл(Mongolian) |
✓ bahasa Indonesia(Indonesian) |
✓ ភាសាខ្មែរ(Khmer) |
✓ Português(Portuguese) |
✓ Română(Romanian) |
✓ Nederlands(Dutch) |
✓ français(French) |
✓ Español Europeo(European Spanish) |
✓ ไทย(Thai) |
✓ မြန်မာ(Burmese) |
✓ اردو(Urdu) |
✓ عربى(Arabic) |
✓ English(English) |
✓繁體中文(Traditional Chinese) |
Please visit the contest submission website and scroll down to the “Contest Resources” section for the judging rubric and parent consent forms.
For questions or more information, please contact us at [email protected].
Leader in Me (LiM) is an evidence-based, comprehensive school improvement model—developed in partnership with educators—that empowers students with the leadership and life-skills they need to thrive in the 21st century.
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