Tessier Women’s History Month Contest

2024 Tessier Women’s History Month Contest Prizes:
1st Place – $75
2nd Place – $50
3rd Place – $25

The Tessier Women’s History Month Contest is an annual event that offers cash prizes to undergraduate students who participate in the challenge.

Rather than ask students to write an essay, we are sending you on a scavenger hunt of sorts!

There are twenty-eight items listed below (as well as on the graphic above):

  • Ride a bike & research “bicycle face”
  • Interview a woman in your family.
  • Share a favorite poem by a female poet
  • Research Ruth Wakefield and her famous recipe – then bake some!
  • Recommend a children’s book about a famous woman
  • Propose a new National Park site dedicated to a woman
  • Get lost! And thank Gladys West for getting you home again
  • Research an invention by a woman
  • Research Kate Sessions and plant something
  • Donate time, talent, or treasure to group that empowers women
  • Research Elizebeth S. Friedman
  • Recommend a woman-owned business
  • Help someone register to vote or sign a petition
  • Attend a YSU women’s sports event
  • Re-create a photo of a famous woman
  • Build a paper-roll rocketship in honor of Mae Jemison and Sally Ride
  • Create a playlist of woman musicians
  • Treasure hunt! Find a Sacagawea coin!
  • Take a Virtual Tour of the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, NY
  • Write a thank you note to a woman who inspires you
  • Visit Harriet Taylor Upton House
  • Research Mary Church Terrell
  • Research “Sadie the Goat”
  • Ask a girl about her favorite subject in school
  • Attend a YSU Women’s History Month Event
  • Check out a book by a female author from the library
  • Walk a mile & research Kathrine Switzer
  • Research what the Declaration of Sentiments says about wages

Your challenge is:

1) Complete the task. 

2) Document completion in some way, usually a photo. (The MacNolia Cox photo alone would be fine)

3) In the caption, explain what you are doing and why. (See the caption example)

4) Mark the task off of the graphic (iPhone allows you to “mark up” photos and pictures)

5) Post on social media – Facebook, Instagram, TikTok – using the hashtag #YSUWHM. Your posts must be visible or public to count. 

Posts MUST include a photo, the graphic with the task marked off (you may re-use the graphic and add marked off tasks), an explanatory caption, and the hashtag. 

See example here

Submissions are due by April 1, 2024.

This contest is restricted to undergraduate students at Youngstown State University. Contest winners will be selected by faculty affiliated with the Women’s and Gender Studies program. Posts will be judged on basis of completion, creativity, and detail. The more posts you complete, the better your chances to win. Completing all the tasks first does not guarantee first place or a prize.

The winners will be recognized on the Women’s and Gender Studies Facebook Group.

This contest was inspired by and borrows heavily from the National Parks Service Women’s History Month 2021 Challenge as well as the BHM Challenge from Because of Them We Can.