From Ideas to Impact: BKC Launches Its Inaugural Student Essay Contest

On Thursday, February 19, students from across Harvard gathered at the Berkman Klein Center (BKC) to explore two timely questions: What does it mean to write about artificial intelligence, democracy, and the future of work right now? And how could they as students use their experiences and insights to help share these ideas with the public? 

The gathering marked the launch of BKC’s inaugural Student Essay Contest. Co-organized with Tech Policy Press, the contest calls on current degree-seeking Harvard students interested in exploring the impacts of AI to put pen to paper and share their perspectives with the world. Selected essays will be published by Tech Policy Press and featured by BKC, offering students the opportunity to enter public conversations around technology and governance.

The kickoff event was organized by BKC’s Student Engagement Team, including Program Manager Valerie Gomez and Harvard College student Maya Dummett. The first half of the event started with a presentation from Justin Hendrix, founder of Tech Policy Press, on what it means to report on technology and how students can write an essay that would be compelling for their audience. Students asked questions about interviewing, integrating stories based on lived experience, and what makes Tech Policy Press different from traditional news outlets. Hendrix particularly emphasized how good writing on technology is either “timely” or “timeless”: most effective when responding to critical developments of the moment or creating a compelling framework for readers to understand their world more broadly. 

Building on Hendrix’s writing guidance, the second half of the event invited students to put theory into practice by engaging in a writing workshop, or “writing gym.” This was a student-led experience that was designed to give participants space to think about their writing practice and warm up their voices, allowing potential contestants a sandbox to experiment and develop their ideas.
The “writing gym” was a structured yet playful workshop, organized and facilitated by Harvard Graduate School of Design student Ami Mehta. The writing gym was broken up into three “missions”: “Mission Red” for participants who had no idea what to write about; “Mission Yellow” for rough concepts; and “Mission Green” for clearer, more defined ideas. Each mission was uniquely designed to push students—regardless of the status of their ideas—to think about the themes of the contest in unconventional ways, make unexpected connections, and tap into subconscious thoughts and feelings.

After the exercise, the full group shared how it felt to think differently about their work, find commonalities between seemingly unrelated ideas, and even suggest references for their peers. From the attention economy and dating apps to decolonial approaches and automation, students expressed interest in writing about a range of topics. Across the board however, students seemed to share a sense of deep personal investment, a recognition that artificial intelligence is transforming the fabric of their lives not only just their academic or research interests. Given a space to voice their ideas, students left the event with more confidence and articulation, ready to engage creatively in a competitive and rapidly developing context.

Learn more about BKC’s Student Essay Contest — including eligibility, parameters, and deadlines — here. There is also a recording of the information session from the first half of the event.