Global Interest Scholarship

The 1951 poem, “What Happens to a Dream Deferred?” by Langston Hughes is credited with helping propel the United States civil rights movement. In 2008 it can help two students receive money to help pay for their higher education.

The contest, sponsored by HAMSA (Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliances) . The top five American and five Mideast students monetary awards totalling $10,000.

Students must write an essay and answer one of three questions on the HAMSA website, here. Complete rules can be found here. This contest pays money directly to the student and any student under the age of 25 is eligible.

This year’s judges are listed on the website as well as the winning essays from 2006 and 2007.

Students don’t have much time let for this one, the deadline is March 30. The poem that propelled the contest is:

What is a Dream Deferred?Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.Or does it explode?-Langston Hughes, 1951