8 November 2022

Are you a bachelor's student? Do you want to win an invite to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo? Join the essay challenge or photography challenge of the Ignitor Fellowhip programme, organised by the Nobel Peace Center. 

The Nobel Ignitor Fellowship programme

The Nobel Peace Center in Oslo organises the Ignitor Fellowship, a unique opportunity for aspiring changemakers. This is an exciting extracurricular programme available to students worldwide. Each June, 30 master’s students from universities around the world are invited to Oslo to kick-off their 18-month long leadership programme. During the selection process, undergraduate students are invited to participate in events and challenges, among which an essay competition and photography challenge.

Last year, Leiden University College student Natalia Sobrino-Saeb won the Nobel Peace Center's essay competition, which allowed her to attend the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo. She even got to meet the laureates, journalists Muratov and Ressa, in person!

About the challenges

The Nobel Peace Prize Challenge is an initiative by the Nobel Peace Center for the students of the Ignitor Community. The objective of the challenge is to include students globally in the topic of the Peace Prize, and to invite them to contextualize the challenges of the most recent Peace Prize to their own communities. The students can participate in either of two categories – essay or photography. This year’s challenge sheds light on the important topics of peaceful co-existence, fraternity and the protection of human rights.

• Essay challenge: Write an open letter to a Head of State and challenge them to invite you and maybe a handful of others to a meeting – an honest and open dialogue. The letter should clearly define the problem, who you see as important stakeholders, and what benefits a change to the status quo would mean?
• Photography challenge: Take a photograph telling a story about fraternity between people on different sides of a divide, be it cultural, political, generational or other possibly dividing differences.

More detailed information about the challenges can be found on the website of the Nobel Peace Center. 

Sign up now

To participate, you first need to sign register for the Ignitor Community of the Nobel Peace Center. After that, you can apply for the challenges. The deadline for sending in your essay or photograph is 18 November 2022. 

Please beware that by entering this challenge you should be able to receive the Challenge prize, which requires travel to Oslo from 9 to 12 December. All expenses are covered by the Nobel Peace Center. 

Q&A

Can I participate?

All undergraduate students can participate. You may join only one of these challenges without having to participate in any of the other activities within the Ignitor Fellowship programme, although we can highly recommend doing so. 

How to participate?

Sign up and join the Ignitor Community. After that, you can apply for the challenges. The deadline for sending in your essay or photograph is 18 November. 

What can I win?

The winner of the challenge will be rewarded with an invitation to Oslo for the conference about the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize in December 2022. Please beware that by entering this challenge you should be able to receive the Challenge prize, which requires travel to Oslo from 9 to 12 December. All expenses are covered by the Nobel Peace Center. 

Contact

If you have any questions, please reach out to the assessor of the Honours Academy, Maarten Kolpa, at assessor@ha.leidenuniv.nl.