2017 UW Climate Change Video Awards: Meet the Judges!

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Submissions have been rolling in during the past week, and today is the deadline for the 2017 UW Climate Change Video Contest. After we collect all the videos, we’ll turn them over to our panel of four judges to determine the finalists, which we’ll screen at the UW Climate Change Video Awards on Friday, June 2, 7 to 9 p.m. at Town Hall Seattle!

For the contest this year, we challenged high school students across the state of Washington to create a two-minute ad that will convince a climate change skeptic to take action—with a top prize of $5,000, $1,000 for second and $500 for third. We can’t wait to see how students tackled this prompt, and we’re excited to introduce the distinguished judges who’ll determine the winning videos!

Laura Jean Cronin

Laura Jean Cronin
Laura Jean Cronin has written, directed and produced an array of award-winning short films that played in festivals worldwide, including John Gill, 2000, Block Party, Leave It, Free Parking, Arthur and One Night. Laura Jean also works as a freelance 1st assistant director in the local Indie film and television industry and teaches video production skills to kids and teens at Reel Grrls, an after-school program that gives youth the tools to succeed as leaders through media production. She has recently wrapped Season Six of the Emmy Award-winning PBS show Biz Kid$, where she served as line producer. Currently, Laura Jean is a producer and director at B47 Studios in Seattle.

Melanie HarrisonDr. Melanie Harrison Okoro
Melanie is a water quality specialist and the aquatic invasive species coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, West Coast Region. She earned her doctorate in environmental science from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and her research focuses on water quality impacts to federally listed threatened and endangered species. Her passions include mentoring youth as a Big Sister in the San Francisco Bay Big Brothers Big Sister Program, and being an advocate for increasing diversity in STEM fields through her involvement with the American Association of University Women in Davis, Calif.

Cody PermenterCody Permenter
Cody is the social media manager at Seattle-based Grist.org, a nonprofit environmental news organization for people who want “a planet that doesn’t burn and a future that doesn’t suck.” Before joining Grist, Cody helped lead the social media efforts at viral news site Cheezburger.com and has been published in publications like Thrillist, The Daily Dot and USA Today. He has served on the nominating board for the Shorty Awards for the past three years, an awards program honoring the best of social media in the entertainment industry, and he studied multimedia journalism at the University of Texas at Austin.

Ethan SteinmanEthan Steinman
Ethan is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and owner of the Seattle-based media production company, Daltonic Films. As a producer and director, he has worked over the past two decades on programming for a wide range of media outlets, including NBC, FOX, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel and A&E. During the past several years, he has produced original content for Al Jazeera English, FOX Sports, CNN, Adidas and Major League Soccer, and he directed two award-winning feature-length documentaries, including Glacial Balance, which explores the effects of climate change on Andean glaciers and the people who depend on them for survival.

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The award show and screening is free and open to the public, and we hope you’ll join us to celebrate these talented students!

2016 Climate Change Video Awards: Announcing the Winners!

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We hosted our second UW Climate Change Video Awards last Saturday, May 14, at Town Hall in Seattle, and it was quite a show!

From our emcee, stand-up economist Yoram Bauman, to our fantastic judges—Dean Lisa J. Graumlich, Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky) and Ethan Steinman—to all of the students, families and friends who came out to watch, we couldn’t have asked for a more positive and inspiring evening. Also, one of the team members on the second-place winner for the undergraduate category, Ben Jensen, is a student in our Environmental Science and Resource Management program!

Yuna Shin, from Henry M. Jackson High School in Bothell, won first prize in the high school category—good for $5,000!
Yuna Shin, from Henry M. Jackson High School in Bothell, won first prize in the high school category—good for $5,000!

Hannah Letinich, our photographer for the show, captured a wonderful range of shots from the evening, so we encourage you to take a look at her gallery (download any images you’d like for free, but please give Hannah credit if you post or share them online anywhere). We’ll be working on getting the winning videos up online to share soon, as well, and in the meantime, below are this year’s finalists and winners.

A huge congratulations to all of them, and to everyone who submitted a video for this year’s contest. These students poured so much time and creativity into these films, and they give us tremendous hope for the future of environmental leadership.

High School

First Place: Yuna Shin, Henry M. Jackson High School, Bothell – $5,000
Second Place: Suraj Buddhavarapu, Naveen Sahi, Allison Tran and Vibha Vadlamani, Tesla STEM High School, Redmond – $1,000
Third Place: Luke Brodersen, Shorewood High School, Shoreline – $500

Other finalists: Julci Areza, Chloe Birney and Tanaya Sardesai from Redmond High School in Redmond, and Aria Ching, Jesselynn Noland, Emily Riley and Emily Weaver from Lynnwood High School in Bothell.

Undergraduate

First Place: Audrey Seda and Tommy Tang, Eastern Washington University and University of Washington – Bothell – $5,000
Second Place: Ben Jensen, Charles Johnson and Anthony Whitfield, University of Washington – $1,000
Third Place: Aaron Hecker, University of Washington – $500

Other finalists: Kennedy McGahan from Gonzaga University, and Malea Saul, Madeline Savage and Bethany Shepler from the University of Washington.

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Special thanks to the Denman Endowment for Student Excellence in Forest Resources for funding the contest.

Photos © Hannah Letinich.

Aaron Hecker, who won third place in the undergraduate category.
Aaron Hecker, who won third place in the undergraduate category, is a student at the University of Washington.

2016 UW Climate Change Video Awards: Meet the Judges!

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Last year, our first-ever UW Climate Change Video Contest was such a success that we decided we had to do it again. So this winter and spring, we once again challenged high school and undergraduate students in the state of Washington to grab a camera and show us what climate change means to them in three minutes or less. The submissions are in, the finalists reviewed and selected—and now the reel fun begins!

Join us at Town Hall on Saturday, May 14, from 7 to 9 p.m. for a public screening of the top five video entries in each category—high school and undergraduate—and see who takes home the grand prize of $5,000, as well as $1,000 for second and $500 for third. A renowned panel of judges will be on hand to announce the winners and discuss the student’s work, and it’s going to be a great show!

We hope you’ll join us in recognizing these incredibly talented students. The screening and award ceremony is free and open to the public, and doors open at 6 p.m. Register now!

Meet the Judges

2016_05_Yoram for blogYoram Bauman (Judge and emcee)
An environmental economist, writer and comedian, Yoram Bauman earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington in 2003 and now performs as the “world’s first and only stand-up economist.” He’s shared the stage with everyone from the late Robin Williams to Paul Krugman, and he has appeared in TIME Magazine and on PBS and NPR. He’s the founder and co-chair of Carbon Washington, a grassroots campaign to bring a revenue-neutral carbon tax (I-732) to Washington, and he is also the co-author of The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change.

2016_05_DJ Spooky for blogPaul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky
Paul D. Miller is a composer, multimedia artist and writer. He has created many works based on his travels to the Arctic and Antarctic, including multimedia stage works: “Arctic Rhythms,” “Check Your Math,” “Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica”; art exhibition “Ice Music”; and The Book of Ice, a graphic book that explores the impact of climate change on Antarctica through the prism of digital media and contemporary music.

Some of his recent projects include “Heart of a River,” a composition that looks at water, cities, climate change and music in India, and “Heart of a Forest,” a symphony about forests and the future (premiering May 18 at Oregon State University). You can follow him on Twitter at @djspooky.

2016_05_Lisa Graumlich for blogDean Lisa Graumlich
Dr. Lisa J. Graumlich, Virginia and Prentice Bloedel Professor, is the inaugural dean of the College of the Environment at the University of Washington. As dean, she leads a college with unparalleled depth and breadth in environmental systems: from the forests to the seas, and from the depths of the Earth to the edges of the solar system. As a scholar, Graumlich pioneered the use of tree-ring data to understand long-term trends in climate, focusing on the mountains of western North America. She is actively engaged with a broad range of stakeholders to understand the impacts of climate change on wilderness and natural areas.

2016_05_Ethan for blogEthan Steinman
Ethan Steinman launched his career in film and television in 1995, and the Emmy-nominated filmmaker opened his Seattle-based media production company, Daltonic Films, in 2013. As a producer and director, he has worked on programming for a wide range of stations, including NBC, FOX, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel and A&E. During the past several years, he has produced original content for Al Jazeera English, FOX Sports, CNN, Adidas and Major League Soccer, and he directed two award-winning documentaries, including Glacial Balance, which explores the effects of climate change on Andean glaciers and the people who depend on them for survival.