Contact: EPA Press Office (press@epa.gov)

WASHINGTON (July 28, 2022) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and cosponsors announced the Phase 1 winners of the Environmental Justice Video Challenge for Students. The winning teams of college students created videos identifying and characterizing an environmental justice issue important to a local community.

“Addressing environmental justice concerns is a core part of our work at EPA,” said Chris Frey, Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “This challenge empowered young people to bring attention to important environmental and public health issues. I look forward to seeing how students collaborate with communities to advance environmental justice in the second phase of this challenge.”

Phase 1 of the challenge asked college students to create a video demonstrating innovative approaches to identify and characterize an environmental justice issue in a select community using data and publicly available tools. Students were encouraged to collaborate with community organizations that could bring a unique perspective to the environmental justice challenge the community is facing.

Phase 1 winning videos are listed below:

• First Place ($20,000): Unearthing Lead: The Power of Historical Maps - University of California, Irvine in Irvine, Calif.– Tim Schütz, David Banuelas, Annika Hjelmstad, Ariane Jong, Ashley Green, Javier Garibay, Alexis Guerra, and Irene Martinez 
• Second Place ($12,000): Mapping Oil Wells Near Homes in California - Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. and University of Richmond in Richmond, Va.– Claire Morton, Mia Lazar, and Eleanor Stalcup 
• Third Place ($6,000): Interdisciplinary Mapping for Environmental Justice (IM4EJ) - Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash.– Drew Slaney and Allison Hayes
• Honorable Mentions ($1,000 each): 
  • As a WHOLE: Eastwick Community Stories, Philadelphia, PA - University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa.– Corey Wills, Itay Porat, Celine Apollon, Aminah McNulty, Guava Rhee, and Toluwalase Akinwunmi
  • Environmental Justice for North Port St. Joe: An LID approach to securing basic infrastructure - University of West Florida in Pensacola, Fla.– Monica Woodruff and Allison Scibelli
  • The Identification and Characterization of Environmental Injustice in Martinsville, Indiana - Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.– Alaina Bryant, Kaleigh Karageorge, Seohyung Kim, Gabriella Hays, Kayla Young, and Jung Hyun Lee
  • Looking Deep into Landfills: A Story of Environmental Injustice - University of Richmond in Richmond, Va.– Megan Salters and McKenna Dunbar
  • Reforest Our Cities - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.– Lauren Riviere and Mary Snyder
  • South Baltimore: Poverty, Race, and Environment - University of Maryland, College Park in College Park, Md.– Yazan Hasan
  • UMD Sustainability Analytics EJ Video Challenge - University of Maryland, College Park in College Park, Md.– Courtney DeLoatch-Hill, Elenna Mach, and Jillian Wimbush

Challenge cosponsors include the American Public Health Association, the Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities – Network (EPIC-N), Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Justice journal, and Groundwork USA.

Phase 2 of the challenge will be open to eligible Phase 1 applicants and is expected to launch in September. Phase 2 will focus on enhancing communities’ capacity to address the environmental justice issue identified in Phase 1. Students will work collaboratively with community-based organizations to develop a strategy that demonstrates effective community engagement and advocacy and/or a proposal to address the environmental justice issue.

Watch the Phase 1 winning videos.