Purpose.  The Make A Difference Program seeks ideas and stories presented to recognize and honor school employees who have made a difference in the lives of students.  Top stories will be converted into short movies to be housed in the Utrust video library.  Stories must have a school setting and feature a school employee such as bus drivers, cafeteria workers, janitors, superintendents, teachers, librarians, principals, counselors, teacher assistants and other school staff.

Awards.  Utrust will award the following to the top stories and post them in our on-line library.

• $1,000 for 1st place
• $500 for 2nd place
• $250 for third place
• Ten $100 awards

Rules.  Each story must adhere to the following:

1.  Stories must not exceed 1500 words.

2.  Each story must be inspirational to the extent that they inspire someone to do something differently to make a difference in the lives of others and meet one or more of the following guidelines:

• Tell the story of a school employee who made a difference in the life of a student or students.
• Tell the story of a school employee who made a difference in the learning environment of a school.
• Describe how a recognition program used in a school or school district to honor the work of employees had an impact on the quality of service of employees.
• Recognize the importance of a specific job (e.g. janitor, cook,secretary,etc.) in a school and inspire students and faculty to show appreciation for those who do that job at their school.
• Inspire student or school employees in general to make a difference in the lives of others at their school.

3. Entries must contain specific examples of how the individual being written about made a difference.

4.  There is no limit to the number of entries submitted by an individual.  Entries should be submitted to utrust@tnuct.com no later than 12 PM Central Standard Time on October 31, 2010 in a word document, Times New Roman font, 12 point size. Only on-line entries will be accepted.

5.  Each entry must be accompanied with a completed entry form.

6.  Entries must come from a resident of a Utrust member school district or be about a current or former employee of a Utrust member school district.

7.  Each entrant must agree to present a copy of the essay to the person about whom it is written.

8.  The decision of the judges will be final.

9.  All entries will become the property of Utrust but will be credited to the author.  The Utrust reserves the right to keep all submitted materials and to only award if stories of acceptable quality for addition to the Utrust story library are received.  The creator or author acknowledges that the Utrust may use and distribute the work at any time and to any audience that it determines. 

Judging Criteria.  Interest and Flow-25%, Creativity-25%, Sentence Structure and Grammar-25%, and Inspiration-25%

Entry Form