Submissions
Prompt
Based on your family, friends, cultural upbringing, media, education, social class, and overall life experiences, how do you come to know belonging at Idaho State University?
“True belonging is the spiritual practice of believing in and belonging to yourself so deeply that you can share your most authentic self with the world and find sacredness in both being a part of something and standing alone in the wilderness. True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.”
― Brené Brown, Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone
General Requirements
- Participants must be Idaho State University students (full- or part- time).
- Ownership of the submitted work belongs to the creators.
- All creators will be asked to sign a release form allowing the use of their submissions on the On Common Ground site, publications, and social media. This form will be sent upon acceptance.
- Collaborative submissions are allowed, but each creator must sign the release form.
- Submissions must relate to the prompt.
- Entries must not violate Idaho State University’s inclusion statement:
Idaho State University is committed to fostering an environment in which students, faculty and staff from all backgrounds can live, work and learn free from the insidious and debilitating effects of prejudice, discrimination and marginalization. As such, ISU is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination, including sexual and gender-based discrimination, harassment, and violence. - You must be willing to allow us to share your work on the On Common Ground website, publications, and during the On Common Ground launch party in April 2024. (We also hope you’ll join us!)
- Entries will be reviewed by Diversity Resource Center students and staff to ensure they meet the above criteria. Invitations to present and read your work at the On Common Ground launch party will be extended in late May 2024.
- Not all submissions may be asked to present at the launch party.
- If you absolutely do not want to present at the launch party, you have the opportunity to indicate this on the submission form.
- You may submit 1-2 art pieces for consideration.
- Any art submissions that feature sculptures or physical objects should be submitted via photograph.
- Images accepted for publication may be subject to cropping or reformatting in order to fit the publication standards.
- Art submissions should include a few sentences describing how your piece reflects your experiences with belonging.
- Images should be at least 300 dpi, and sent in .png, .tiff, or .jpeg format. Images may be slightly reformatted if featured on the front page. File name for each image should be the work title + submitter’s last name.
- Written entries should be a maximum of 2,500 words or 2-3 poems.
- Entries may be in the form of essays, poems, short stories, or even plays; we want you to have fun and be creative, so if your submission doesn’t quite fit these categories, please reach out to us!
- Written submissions should be submitted as a .doc or .docx file. Poems should be submitted in a single file.
- You may submit 1-2 music pieces for consideration.
- Music submissions should include a few sentences describing how your piece reflects your experiences with belonging.
- The maximum length for any individual music submission is 12 minutes.
- File name for each submission should be the work's title + submitter’s last name.
- Music submissions should be submitted as uncompressed or lossless compression files. Alternatively, you can host your submission on a third-party site such as bandcamp, and send us a link.
- You may submit 1-2 video submissions for consideration.
- The minimum aspect ratio for videos is 720p. You are more than welcome to use non-standard aspect ratios, but please ensure that your film visual quality is at least standard definition.
- The maximum length for any individual video submission is 12 minutes.
- The file name for each video should be the work title + submitter’s last name.
- Please only submit standard video files, such as .mp4 or .mov
Note on AI
We understand that AI can be a useful tool for generating ideas and organizing your thoughts. However, we strongly encourage all submissions to be written in your own words.
AI generated music and images will not be accepted.