The University of Findlay, in collaboration with The Courier newspaper, invites high school students to submit an essay for a chance to win an iPod Touch.

High school students may submit an essay on the topic of “The neatest social networking application ever!”  The winning essays will win either an iPod Touch (for the best essay), an iPod Nano (for second place) or a $40 gift certificate to Best Buy (for third place).

Essays must be 250 words or less and any high school student is eligible to enter.  Entries should be e-mailed to Jim Zellner at The Courier (jimzellner@thecourier.com) by the contest deadline of Oct. 1.

The essay contest is being run in conjunction with the University’s annual Information Assurance Forum to be held on campus at Winebrenner Seminary’s TLB auditorium Oct. 28. 

The theme of this year’s forum is “Social Networking: Business Opportunity or Security Nightmare?” 

Students and other forum attendees will learn how to take advantage of social networking tools like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Second Life while protecting against identity theft and other security threats. Attendees also will have an opportunity to take advantage of demonstrations on how these social networking tools work.

The Information Assurance Forum is jointly sponsored by the Center for Information Assurance Education and the College of Business at The University of Findlay, the Technology Infrastructure Committee of GreaterFindlayInc. and the Findlay Publishing Company. 

Admission to the forum is $25, and reservations may be made by calling 419-422-3313 or e-mailing rsvp@greaterfindlayinc.com.

The winning student essays will be read at the forum at the session starting at 10:20 a.m.