Photo credit: Flickr user inacheapwestern.

Five students will receive $5,000 scholarships for using social media creatively to celebrate the First Amendment through the #FreeToTweet scholarship competition.

More than 3,600 tweets were sent with the #FreetoTweet hashtag during the first two weeks in December,  sharing how people enjoy their right to free expression. 

The winning students from across the nation were chosen based on the creativity and relevance of their tweets.

Here is a sample of a winning tweet from Anthony Jackson, a student at Ridgeway High School in Memphis, Tenn., who plans to study economics and computer science at the University of Chicago:

• “The government can’t be of the people, by the people, or for the people if they don’t know what the people want. Speak up & out. #FreeToTweet”

Each of the winners were selected for his/her tweet based on the five distinct freedoms of the First Amendment: speech, press, religion, assembly and petition.

For the full list of winners, visit 1forall.us/winners. @freetotweet2012 will also tweet the winning entries.

The competition was organized by the Newseum’s First Amendment Center, 1 for All and the American Society of News Editors, with funding provided by Knight Foundation.

Entries were judged by First Amendment experts and educators who support 1 for All, the educational and public service campaign created to build understanding of the First Amendment and its five freedoms.

The #FreeToTweet campaign was built on the findings of Knight Foundation’s study, “Future of the First Amendment,” which looked at the role social media plays in shaping young people’s sense of First Amendment principles.

By Elizabeth R. Miller, communications associate at Knight Foundation