Richard J. Stull Student Essay Competition in Healthcare Management

 

The American College of Healthcare Executives is pleased to sponsor the annual Richard J. Stull Student Essay Competition in Healthcare Management. The purpose of the competition is to stimulate and demonstrate the ability of future healthcare executives to identify and describe important issues and developments in their chosen profession.

Topics

ACHE invites eligible students to submit high-quality essays with a focus on health management topics such as:

  • strategic planning and policy
  • accountability of and/or relationships among board, medical staff and executive management
  • financial management
  • human resources management
  • systems management
  • plant and facility management
  • comprehensive systems of services
  • quality assessment and assurance
  • professional, public, community or interorganization relations
  • governmental relations or regulation
  • marketing
  • education
  • research
  • law and ethics

Eligibility

  1. The competition is open to students currently enrolled in either a graduate or undergraduate U.S. or Canadian health administration program that is a participant in the ACHE Higher Education Network. To be eligible, entrants must be either an ACHE Student Associate or a Member of ACHE.
  2. Essays must be the product of one individual. Joint efforts are not acceptable.
  3. Essays must not have been published previously.
  4. Individuals completing a residency or other postgraduate experience are not eligible.
  5. Individuals with 5+ years of work experience in the field of healthcare are not eligible.
  6. Individuals cannot be a past winner in the same division.

Instructions for Essayists

Program faculty must select and submit one essay to represent their program in the competition. Essays may be up to 15 pages, excluding summary, conclusion, and references list, and be written in accordance with APA (American Psychological Association) formatting. The summary should be approximately 150 words and follow the title page.

The student’s name should appear only on the title page; the title of the essay should appear on the summary and on the first page of the text.

All essays must be typed, double-spaced (including references), and have margins 1 ¼ inches all around.

Note: Students whose winning essays are published in the Journal of Healthcare Management will need to provide their essay as a Word document.

View Sample Essays

Evaluation

Essays selected to be submitted to ACHE will be subjected to a thorough review by panels composed of practitioners and faculty. The panels employ five equally-weighted criteria:

  1. Significance of the subject to healthcare management
  2. Innovativeness in approach to the topic
  3. Thoroughness and precision in developing the subject
  4. Practical usefulness for guiding management action
  5. Clarity and conciseness of expression (including correct grammar and overall quality of writing)

Entries and Awards

Only one entry per program will be accepted. Program faculty must select and submit the student essay entered into the competition. Schools with both graduate and undergraduate degree programs may submit separate entries for each. 

Cash prizes will be awarded to the first-place, second-place, and third-place essayists in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions. Each student who has his/her essay submitted to ACHE will receive a certificate and keepsake in recognition of being selected to represent his/her program.

The graduate and undergraduate students whose essays are judged the winning entries will each receive $3,000; their programs will receive $1,000. The second and third place graduate and undergraduate finalists will receive $2,000 and $1,000, respectively.

All six finalists will be recognized at the Congress on Healthcare Leadership, March 24 - 27, 2025.

Publication

The two first-place entries will be published in the Journal of Healthcare Management. These two essays will become the permanent property of the Foundation of the American College of Healthcare Executives and may not be published elsewhere without written permission from the publisher. Each winning student essayist will be required to complete a copyright transfer form before publication.

When and Where to Send Entries/Inquiries

Essays must be received at ACHE by close of business on December 2, 2024.

Entries are only accepted electronically. To view instructions for electronic submission, click here.

For more information, please contact Sheila Brown, Chapter Relations Department, at (312) 424-9316 or sbrown@ache.org.