WJCT

Location: Online or by Mail

WJCT is once again teaming up with PBS to bring the PBS KIDS GO! WRITERS CONTEST to the First Coast. The Contest which builds on the 16-year legacy and foundation of the Reading Rainbow Writers and Illustrators Contest celebrates and embraces children’s love of literature and appetite for learning.

January 18 – March 16, 2012 – K-3rd grade students

Rules (PDF)
Entry Form (PDF)
Enter Online

Help for Writing (PDF)

Location: Online

“The Things They Carried” $1000 Scholarship Contest

WJCT, the Duval County Public Schools and the Jacksonville Public Library announce a scholarship essay contest based on Tim O’Brien’s book “The Things They Carried”, a collection of related stories about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War, originally published in hardcover in 1990.

This scholarship is available to graduating high school seniors (public, private or homeschooled) in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau or St. Johns counties in Florida whose permanent address is in one of these counties and will be in a program of study in by the fall of 2012 at an accredited institution of higher education (this includes a four-year college or university, a two- year community/state college, or a vocational/technical school) or joining the military.

For more details and official rules, click here.

Location: WJCT

WJCT announces the Family Lines: Tracing the Branches of the Past Video Contest for interested citizens in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties to support WJCT’s promotion of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Full contest rules, information, and entry form can be downloaded here.

The Series

For over 15 years, the acclaimed documentary specials hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. have been regular highlights of PBS’s broadcast calendar. African American Lives, African American Lives 2, and Faces of America in particular were blockbuster events, reaching new and diverse audiences by presenting American history through the experiences of celebrities (and their ancestors) who have lived through it. Building on these successes, Dr. Gates will return to PBS on March 26, 2012 as the host of a new ten-episode broadcast series—Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

America is a nation of immigrants, and the richly diverse racial, ethnic, cultural and religious heritage that defines the American experience is the focus of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Since 2006, Professor Gates has been helping his subjects on African American Lives, African American Lives 2, and Faces of America find long-buried details of their recent and distant ancestries by tracing the branches of their individual family trees and then analyzing their DNA. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. will continue in this tradition, sifting though the genealogical past even as it looks to the future of cutting-edge genetic science.

The Project

WJCT is seeking original video content, 7 minutes in length, designed to explore:

• the genealogy/family history of an individual (or individuals) in their community;
• the resources offered by a local historical or genealogical group or organization to assist viewers as they begin research on their own family stories.

WJCT and its volunteer judges will choose 3 entries to be included in a 30-minute television program designed to connect local audiences with the Finding Your Roots series. Each chosen production will receive $500 and will be aired on WJCT TV. The final 30-minute program will air on WJCT’s digital TV channels, online at WJCTondemand.org and will be offered to other Florida PBS stations for air.