Competition
Bennington Young Innovators Awards (high school AI thinking prize, worldwide)
Bennington College
At a glance
- Deadline
- Closes 1 November 2026, 10 days leftThe posting gives a date, not a time. Days left are counted in Lagos time.
- Fee
- No fee to apply
- Who may apply
- Secondary school age (grades 9 to 12)
- A secondary school student in grades 9 to 12; students who have already graduated are not eligible
- The entry must be reviewed and approved by a sponsoring teacher or mentor
- Where
- Online, open to students worldwide
A free worldwide prize for high school students from Bennington College in the US for thinking critically and creatively about artificial intelligence, with cash prizes up to USD 2,000 and scholarships.
The facts
- What you get
- Cash prizes up to USD 2,000, plus scholarships for winners who enrol at Bennington
- Where
- Online, open to students worldwide
- How long
- Submissions 1 September to 1 November 2026
Where you stand
This one is free. There is no fee to apply, and nobody should ask you for money at any point.
What they ask for
- A secondary school student in grades 9 to 12; students who have already graduated are not eligible
- Secondary school age (grades 9 to 12)
- The entry must be reviewed and approved by a sponsoring teacher or mentor
- Grade 12 students first submit a Common App or Coalition application to Bennington (free and non-binding)
Get ready to apply
Built only from what this listing states.
The application takes real work, by our reading.
1. What to get ready
It asks for something outside the usual documents; read it below.
In their words: “An entry in one of the award's three categories, with any writing composed by you, not by AI”
2. Dates
- Closes 1 November 2026, in 10 days.
- Aim to send it by 29 October 2026. Websites slow down near a deadline, and data runs out. Our advice
Download checklist (.txt) Send to WhatsApp
The download is a small text file. You can read it later without data. It also lists each condition they set, so you can tick yourself against them. WhatsApp sends the same list to you, or to somebody helping you.
No CV yet? Make a plain one from your answers. Nothing you type is kept.
Tips for applying for a competition
General advice from us, the same for every competition. It is not what this organisation says; that is above.
- Read the rules and the judging criteria first, and write to them.
- Check who owns your work after you enter. The rules usually say.
- Submit a day early. Upload pages are often slow near a deadline.
If there is an interview or a test
- If there is a final or a pitch, practise out loud and time yourself.
All our tips and messages to copy. Practise answering, with nothing kept. Received an offer? Check whether it is real, then read before you say yes.
How to apply
You apply on Bennington College's own website, not here. We never send an application for anybody and we never ask you for anything to pass on. Check their page for anything not shown here.
More like this, open now
How we checked this
This was opened and verified at Bennington College's own website on 3 October 2026: it was real, still open, and open to people from African countries. If anything here is wrong, tell us.