BHMC

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. VALID IN THE 50 UNITED STATES, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND PUERTO RICO. ENTRY IN THIS CONTEST CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES. 

The Black History Month Challenge Essay Contest (the "Contest") is sponsored by EverFi, Inc. (“EVERFI”), a Delaware corporation, located at 2300 N Street NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20037. The Contest is designed to encourage eligible students and their parents/guardians on their behalf ("Entrant(s)" or "You") to share three ideas on how they can keep the conversation about Black History going throughout the year. Judges will choose the winning entries, and prizes will be awarded in accordance with these Official Rules (the "Official Rules").

I.  Contest Details

Over the course of this Contest beginning February 1, 2023 at 12:00am EST and concluding February 28, 2023 at 11:59pm EST, Entrants submit Contest entries (“Entries”) that will be judged based on creativity, the content of the message, quality of writing, and demonstrated understanding of the concepts from the course in accordance with the Rubric (as further described below).

II.  Entry Submission

To submit an Entry, Entrants will visit the Third Party Sponsor's Black History Month Challenge microsite and complete the digital entry form. Entries will be solely evaluated based on this submission. Course participation, course results and/or social media posts will not factor into the evaluation.

III.  Winning Entry Selection and Prizes 

The winning Entries will be selected between March 1 to March 17, 2023 and will be notified via email by EVERFI, headquartered in Washington, DC.

Prizes:

Citizens Bank, N.A. will award eight (8) $5,000 529-plan scholarships to student winners. Students must be currently enrolled or committed to attending an HBCU. Winners will be asked for confirming documentation in the form of a recent transcript or a copy of enrollment confirmation. Additionally, Citizens Bank, N.A. will provide a brand new Apple MacBook Pro to all eight (8) scholarship winners.

Principal Financial Group will award VISA gift cards to the top three winners from their program; $3,500 first place, $1,000 second place, $500 third place. To be eligible to win Principal’s prizes, students must be between the ages of 13-18.

Any additional costs associated with use of the prizes, if any, are the responsibility of the winners.

A committee of selected EVERFI judges will select the winners from the grade groups by March 20, 2023. Entries will be judged based on the following rubric (the “Rubric”)

Scoring Rubric

Demonstrating Understanding: 1-10

  • Is the information in the essay accurate? Does it clearly answer the prompt?
  • How well does the essay outline the plan the Entrant put in place to make an impact within their community?
  • Does the essay reference knowledge from the lessons in the challenge?

Writing Quality: 1-5

  • Does the essay flow and read clearly?
  • Punctuation or grammatical mistakes?

Creativity Score: 1-5

  • Does the Entrant use the topics from the course to create a new idea?
  • Does the Entrant apply the lessons to their plan that help reinforce their understanding of the prompt/topic?
  • Is there a good human interest story here from a PR perspective?

In the event of a tie, Entrants will be judged by a new panel of EVERFI’s expert curriculum development team. Each Entrant will be evaluated utilizing the Rubric above on their submission and a winner will be determined upon final tally of the score.

With prior written approval from a winner’s parent or legal guardian, winning Entries and the winner’s name and likeness may be featured by EVERFI and third-party sponsors of the Contest (e.g. Principal Life Insurance Company (“Principal”) and Citizens Bank, N.A. (“Citizens”))(together, “Third Party Sponsors”), and each of their respective parents, affiliated companies, subsidiaries, licensees, dealers, retailers, printers and advertising and promotion agencies. Winners will be notified via email no later than 11:59pm EST March 20th, 2023 and may be announced via social media and marketing channels once winners have confirmed receipt. Prizes will be distributed upon completion of the authorization form by the winning child’s parent or legal guardian.

IV.  Eligibility

To be eligible to enter the Contest, an Entrant must: (a) be at least 18 years of age or have parental or legal guardian permission to participate, and (b) be a U.S. or a permanent legal resident (i.e., must be able to show proof of permanent legal residence). In addition to (a) and (b) above, Entrants must be (i) enrolled in a private or public elementary or secondary school (grades 9-12) or a home school (grades 9-12) in the fifty (50) United States, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., to enter to win one of the Principal sponsored prizes, and/or (ii) currently enrolled or committed to attending a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to enter to win one of the Citizens sponsored prizes. Winners of the Citizens prizes will be asked for confirming documentation in the form of a recent transcript or a copy of enrollment confirmation from their respective HBCU.

V.  Terms and Conditions

Entrants may only submit one (1) Entry. Entrants may not submit entries as a group.

Entry Requirements: All entries must comply with the following restrictions:

  1. Entry must be an original work;
  2. Entry must be in English (except for commonly understood foreign words);
  3. Entry cannot have been published previously by any party other than the Entrant;
  4. Entry must be suitable for publication (i.e., may not be obscene or indecent);
  5. Entry cannot include trademarks, logos, or trade dress owned by any third party, or advertise or promote any brand or product of any kind, other than EVERFI;
  6. Entry cannot include copyrighted or patented materials owned by others (including photographs, sculptures, paintings and other works of art or images);
  7. Entry cannot include the name, likeness, photograph, or other indicia identifying any person, living or dead, without permission from that person;
  8. Entry cannot be sexually explicit or suggestive, violent or derogatory of any ethnic, racial, gender, religious, professional or age group;
  9. Entry cannot promote illegal drugs, tobacco, alcohol, firearms/weapons (or the use of any of the foregoing), any activities that may appear unsafe or dangerous, or any particular political agenda or message; and
  10. Entry cannot describe or depict any illegal activity or violation of any state, provincial or federal law.

EVERFI reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any Entry in violation of the Official Rules.

EVERFI and its affiliates may share the content of the submitted Entry anonymously and with no personal identifiers with Third Party Sponsors. By submitting any content to the Contest, Entrants hereby represent and warrant that the submitted materials do not and shall not infringe on any copyright, trademark, or other right of any third party.

Entrants are eligible to win no more than one (1) prize. Winners will be emailed an authorization form along with a W9 or W8 tax form (as applicable) that a parent or guardian must complete and return within fourteen (14) days in order to receive any prizes. In the event the authorization form and applicable tax form are not returned within fourteen days, EVERFI reserves the right to select a new winner. Prizes may not be resold, are non-transferable and may not be redeemed for cash. EVERFI reserves the right to substitute prize(s) of comparable or greater value in the event a prize or any portion thereof becomes unavailable for any reason. Void where prohibited. Employees, officers, directors, representatives, and agents of EVERFI, Third Party Sponsors and members of any such person’s immediate family (spouse, parent, sibling or child and their respective spouses, regardless of where they reside) are not eligible to enter or win.

Parents or legal guardians of each winner will be required to sign an affidavit of eligibility and publicity release granting EVERFI, Third Party Sponsors, and their respective affiliates the right to attribute the submitted Entry to the Entrant. This promotion is sponsored solely by EVERFI, Inc., located at 2300 N Street N.W., Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20037. EVERFI reserves the right in its sole and absolute discretion to terminate this Contest at any time without prior notice. No Purchase Necessary.

VI.  Intellectual Property Rights

As between EVERFI and the Entrant, the Entrant retains ownership of all intellectual property rights in and to the Entrant's Entry (excluding EVERFI's rights in the EVERFI logo/trademark and Third Party Sponsors rights to their respective logo/trademarks). EVERFI, and Third Party Sponsors retain all rights in their respective products and services and entry into this Contest will in no case serve to transfer any EVERFI or Third Party Sponsors intellectual property rights to the Entrant.

As a condition of entry, Entrant grants the Released Parties (as defined below) a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, transferable, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to make, use, sell, offer to sell, reproduce, adapt, modify, publish, distribute, publicly perform, create a derivative work from, and publicly display the Entry for any purpose, including display on the EVERFI, and Third Party Sponsors websites, without any attribution or compensation to Entrant.

The Entrant acknowledges that receipt, consideration, and/or review of Entrant’s Entry is not an admission by the Released Parties of the novelty, propriety, originality or value of the Entry, or the priority of any Entry over another. The Entrant acknowledges that content in the Entry may be the same as or similar to concepts the Released Parties have previously developed on their own, have received from or via third parties or have considered developing independent of the Entrant. As such, the Entrant hereby agrees that the Entrant (on behalf of the Entrant and any person, parent, guardian, school, institution, company or other entity that the Entrant may represent or be involved with) will not pursue any claim or take any action of any kind against the Released Parties in connection with any actions that any of them may take at any time with respect to the Entry or any other program or idea relating to the Entry or the Released Parties.

VII.  Privacy

Entrant agrees and acknowledges that personal data submitted with an Entry, including name, mailing address, phone number, and email address may be collected, processed, stored and otherwise used by EVERFI for the purposes of conducting and administering the Contest. All personal information that is collected from parents, guardians, and teachers on behalf of Entrants is subject to EVERFI’s Privacy Policy, located at: https://everfi.com/privacy-policy/. Individuals submitting personal information in connection with the Contest have the right to request access, review, rectification or deletion of any personal data held by EVERFI in connection with the Contest by emailing EVERFI at [email protected].

VIII.  Release and Limitation of Liability

By participating in the Contest, Entrants agree to release, indemnify, defend and hold harmless EverFi, Inc., Third Party Sponsors, and any of the foregoing’s respective affiliates, together with each of the foregoing's respective officers, directors, employees, governors, members, partners, shareholders, owners, and agents (the “Released Parties”) from and against - and hereby waive any right to pursue - any claim or cause of action of any nature arising out of participation in the Contest, use of Entrant Entries or their contents, or receipt or use of any prize (or component thereof), including, but not limited to: (a) any technical errors that may prevent an Entrant from submitting an Entry; (b) errors in the administration of the Contest or delivery or the processing of Entries; (c) the violation of any third-party privacy, personal, publicity or proprietary rights; (d) acceptance, attendance at, receipt, travel related to, participation in, delivery, possession, defects in, use, non-use, misuse, inability to use, loss, damage, destruction, negligence or willful misconduct in connection with the use of a prize (or any component thereof); (e) any change in the prizing (or any components thereof); (f) human error; (g) any wrongful, negligent, or unauthorized act or omission on the part of any of the Released Parties; (h) lost, late, stolen, misdirected, damaged or destroyed prizing (or any component thereof); or (i) the negligence or willful misconduct by Entrant. Entrant waives the right to claim any damages whatsoever, including, but not limited to, punitive, consequential, direct, or indirect damages.

If, for any reason, the Contest is not capable of running as planned, or the integrity and or feasibility of the Contest is severely undermined by any event beyond the control of EVERFI, including but not limited to fire, flood, epidemic, earthquake, explosion, labor dispute or strike, act of God or public enemy, satellite or equipment failure, riot or civil disturbance, war (declared or undeclared), terrorist threat or activity, or any federal, state, provincial or local government law, order, or regulation, order of any court or jurisdiction, infection by computer virus, unauthorized intervention, technical failures or other cause not reasonably within the control of EVERFI, EVERFI reserves the right, at its sole and absolute discretion to abbreviate, cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest and/or proceed with the Contest, including the selection of winners in a manner it deems fair and reasonable, including the selection of winners from among eligible Entries received prior to such cancellation, termination, modification or suspension without any further obligation provided a sufficient number of eligible entries are received. If EVERFI in its discretion, elects to alter this Contest as a result of a force majeure event, a notice will be posted at https://citizens.everfi-next.net/welcome/bhm and https://principal-financial-group.everfi-next.net/welcome/bhm.

Without limiting the foregoing, everything regarding this Contest, including the prizes, is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement.

IX.  Governing Law

All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules shall be governed and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the District of Columbia without regard to the choice of law provisions thereof.

The Administrator of this Contest is EverFi, Inc. Third Party Sponsors are not administrators of this Contest and are in no way responsible or liable for the administration of the Contest or awarding of the Prize.

This Contest is not affiliated with or promoted by any college or university. MacBook Pro® is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc., registered in the US and other countries. This Giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Apple Inc.