The grand-prize winners of the annual student storytelling contest included three from GW. From videos to photo essays, their projects offered hope, inspiration and humor on environmental topics.
Planet Forward, a project of Columbian College’s School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA), honored six winners of Storyfest, its annual student storytelling contest. Among the students garnering top awards were Sarah Sem, BA ’20, for her video “What’s the beef with meatless burgers?”; and Cate Twining-Ward for her photo essay “Clinging onto chimps: Why you should think of chimpanzees during the climate crisis.” Sem was a political communications major at GW and Twining-ward is a geography and environmental studies major.
The Planet Forward Storyfest competition highlights and celebrates the best in student-generated environmental stories. Students submitted up to three stories in any medium-based category of their choice. Categories included article, multimedia, podcast, photo essay, short or shareable video and video.
In announcing the grand-prize winners, Professor of Media and Public Affairs and International Affairs and Planet Forward Chief Executive Frank Sesno said that using the power of storytelling “to convey hope and to inspire” is more important than ever.
“In these unprecedented times,” Sesno said, “our Storyfest grand-prize winners rose to the occasion. This competition has only further elevated their voices as powerful communicators for the planet.”
Winners were selected by a panel of judges not affiliated with Planet Forward. Judges included current and former journalists and expert communicators from organizations like The Nature Conservancy, Island Press, Climate Nexus and Earth Day Network. The competition was made possible by the continued support of Lindblad Expeditions, which has taken winners on storytelling expeditions to some of the world’s most remote places.
In addition, Deepti Bansal-Gage, a doctor of law candidate at GW, won the “fan favorite” category for her story “Wait! Before you squish that bug…” To learn more about all of the winners and their stories, visit PlanetForward.org.