Your voice matters! Help us celebrate diversity and remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by sharing your writing with our Columbia community.

The City of Columbia invites students in grades 4-12 to submit their original writings for possible publicaion in the 2026 Colubmia Values Diversity Celebration Student Writings Booklet. The booklet will be distributed to over 1,000 at he annual community celebration on January 28, 2026, and published on the Celebration website.

Read more about the Celebration, watch last year's student writings video, and read last year's writings booklet on our website: CoMoDiversityCelebration.com

Teacher Resource: Visit The King Center’s website for more information related to Dr. Martin Luther King’s teachings on the Beloved Community at https://thekingcenter.org/about-tkc/the-king-philosophy/ (bottom section of webpage). 

PROGRAM GUIDELINES

The theme for the 2026 Columbia Values Diversity Celebration is "Our Beloved Community: We Why Stand Together." Student Writings Program guidelines below.

Eligibility: Students in grades 4-12 who attend a school or are homeschooled in Columbia, MO are eligible. 

Submission Guidelines: Student writing submission should not be more than one page typewritten or two pages handwritten. 

Selection Criteria: A selection committee will choose writings based on the following criteria: artisitic merit, relation to the theme, and quality of writing.  Four to five students will also be selected with the opportunity to read thier works and be featured in a video produced by the City of Columbia, which will be played at the Celebration and broadcase after the event. 

Submission deadline is Friday, November 14, 2025 by 5:00 p.m.

WRITING SUGGESTIONS

To help you get started, consider using one of the following prompts (or, dream up your own):

Narrative: How has some aspect of your life been impacted by Dr. King’s vision of a Beloved Community, which is the ideal of a society characterized by social equity, peace and belonging where love and justice triumph over hate, prejudice and conflict? How has this experience inspired you to action to make your community a better place? Or simply – what do you love about Columbia?

Persuasive/Opinion: A Beloved Community requires a commitment to compassion, listening to others needs, and efforts to promote justice and equality. In what ways should Dr. King’s vision continue to impact our actions toward a better community? 

Expository: “Love as a guiding force” is a key characteristic of Dr. King’s ideal of a Beloved Community. Research a problem in our community and explain how using empathy and compassion could be used to address it.

Creative: Using a genre of your choice (e.g. poem, song, or short story) create an original writing that captures actions in our community that exemplify Dr. King’s dream of peace, justice, and equality for all.

Writing Submission

You can either choose Option 1 and paste your writing submission in the box below, or Option 2 and upload a Word or PDF document of your writing submission. Teachers who are submitting on behalf of their students may upload multiple files with Option 2.