Thank you for making this our most successful year yet! We received a record high number of submissions from students in 44 U.S. states and 23 foreign countries, including Colombia, Antarctica, New Zealand, and Ukraine. We would also like to thank the more than 400 ASHG members who participated in judging the essays, as well as our sponsor for this year's contest, Embi Tec, creator of the MiniOne System for real time electrophoresis in the classroom!
Choose a genetic test that is currently available for a condition or disease that does not cause symptoms until adulthood
(i.e., an adult-onset condition such as hereditary breast cancer). Describe how the test works and how certain the test results are. Then, either defend or refute the recommendation below from ASHG’s recent position statement on pediatric genetic testing.
"Adolescents should be encouraged to defer predictive or pre-dispositional testing for adult-onset conditions until adulthood because of the complexity of the potential impact of the information at formative life stages."
Click the names below to view essay excerpts.
Honorable Mentions
The contest aims to challenge students to examine, question, and reflect on important ideas and issues related to human genetics. Competitive essays are expected to convey substantive, well-reasoned, and evidence-based arguments that demonstrate deep understanding.
Essays are evaluated through three rounds of judging, and every essay is read by a minimum of three judges. Top-scoring essays have typically been scored by a dozen or more judges.
Questions/Comments: Contact dnaday@ashg.org
