In an effort to get more high schoolers to participate in politics, a civic education project is offering an essay and a cartoon contest from which students can win prizes.

Legischool, a civic education project that is working with California State University, Sacramento on this project, will award a round trip to Sacramento to meet and talk with state legislators to the winner of the essay contest and prize money to the winner of the cartoon contest. According to LegiSchool Project Director Terre Thorne, the contests’ goal is to get more teens involved with government policies.

“LegiSchool’s mission is to engage high school students in matters of public policy and state government,” Thorne said. “One of the ways we hope to achieve that goal is through our contests, which we created to get students thinking critically about important issues. Our hope is that participation in our contests will make government relevant to young people and inspire an interest in civic life.”

According to the LegiSchool Project website, the essay contest requires students to write about their opinions on issues regarding low voter turnout among youth. The competition is available to all juniors and seniors in California.

The top 10 students will win a trip to Sacramento and get the chance to meet state legislators and share their ideas with them.

According to Thorne, participants in the cartoon contest must write an original political cartoon about a current political issue. All high schoolers can participate and students can only write one cartoon. The student who draws the most creative cartoon will win $150 and the next four runner-ups will win $100 each. The top five cartoons will also be showcased on KQED.org.

The deadline for the essay competition is Nov. 18 and the deadline for the cartoon contest is Dec. 4.