Sustainability Journalism Award Winners Announced

Earth Day Network is proud to announce the winners of the second annual Sustainability Journalism Award! In October 2013, Earth Day Network kicked off the competition by asking U.S. high school journalists (print, broadcasting, and photography) to submit pieces on three thematic areas related to sustainability in their schools:

• The importance of healthy, sustainable food served in school
• What your school community is doing to combat climate change
• How your school is promoting environmental education

And the winners are… 1st PLACE: Abbey Brown, Marcus Whitman Central High School—Rushville, NY Congratulations to first prize winner Abbey Brown, of Marcus Whitman Central High School in Rushville, New York! Abbey’s article for The Whitman Word, her school’s newspaper, highlights the need for healthy school lunches and the challenges involved. Abbey discusses the financial difficulties, obstacles of adhering to USDA regulations, and the struggle of fighting a billion dollar innutritious food marketing industry. Abbey also explores potential solutions such as legislation dedicated to improving childhood nutrition, schoolyard gardens, and campaigns for healthier choices. “I felt that participating in this contest would be a fantastic opportunity to broaden my horizons and further my understanding regarding healthy, sustainable food in schools.  I believe that journalism is significant in communicating the facts of such a topic and has the potential to make great changes.  I hoped by drawing attention to this problem that schools could obtain new ideas to improve their food systems.  I have learned that it can truly make a considerable difference in people’s overall health and their lives in general.” – Abbey Brown 2nd PLACE: Kendra Allen, Park Hill South High School—Parkville, MO The second prize winner was Kendra Allen of Park Hill South High School in Parkville, Missouri. In her article for The View, Park Hill’s newspaper, Kendra explores many problems within the environmental movement and welcomes positive changes, especially in her school. Kendra argues that recycling alone is not sufficient to protect nature, and we need to practice eco-friendly activities like carpooling and taking the bus as well. Kendra also challenges her school to make changes so that students are further encouraged to actively preserve nature, not just for the future, but for now. “I thought it would be a fun contest that I could raise awareness with and earn some money. I selected my topic because I wanted to have an article that teenagers would actually want to start reading and finish reading. But I also wanted to make sure that I addressed topics relevant to my school. For a while, I didn’t know if my article was the kind of article that they were looking for. But after I wrote it, I loved it too much to not send in, no matter what they were actually looking for. Also, it took forever to finally get space in print for my article, so I put it on the web for entry purposes.” –Kendra Allen