Applications Invited for the Planet Forward Storyfest Awards

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About the Organization

Effective environmental and science communication is needed now more than ever.

Planet Forward, a project hosted at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, teaches, celebrates, and rewards environmental storytelling by college students. It is the premier engagement tool for GW’s many sustainability initiatives.

Emmy Award-winning journalist Frank Sesno formed Planet Forward in 2009 to empower new voices and lead a global conversation on the planet’s future.

Engaging a diverse audience of college students from across the country, Planet Forward uses storytelling, media, and educational events to tell the stories of invention and innovation that can move our planet forward.

Just one of the ways we work with students is our annual storytelling contest, Storyfest, which rewards winners with a storytelling expedition like no other. Watch the video below to see what our 2019 Storyfest winners experienced in the Galápagos Islands — and hear the real inspiration we provide students, from a diverse mix of colleges across the country.

About the Event  

There is no story more gripping than that of our changing planet — and the solutions to sustain it. While problems ranging from climate justice to conservation, from rising sea levels to increasing heat waves, from the continuing pandemic to our plastic addiction, we’re looking for the stories surrounding the people, ideas, and innovations moving the world toward a greener future.

The Planet Forward Storyfest Awards highlight the voices of students, seeking to understand and illuminate  innovations for how to best care for the earth. We are looking for stories that inspire, motivate, and drive change. Stories that are compelling, thought-provoking, and vibrantly stimulating. Be memorable, have an impact — and have fun.

We encourage students from all academic backgrounds to enter Storyfest for a chance to win a seat on this year’s trip with Planet Forward.

Storyfest is a contest of published stories on the Planet Forward site.

Whether you come from a journalism background or are studying engineering, your story is yours alone to tell. Planet Forward seeks to reward the very best of student environmental storytelling in the following categories:

Best Video: All video submissions should be one to eight (1-8) minutes in length with HD-quality audio and visual, and include an article, which should be fifty to two hundred (50-200) words describing the video without transcription. Submissions may be 16:9 or 9:16 orientation. All video submissions must be uploaded to Vimeo or YouTube. If a video story published on planetforward.org is over eight (8) minutes in length, a short trailer may be entered for the Award to satisfy the run time requirement.

Best Written Story: All written submissions should be six hundred to one thousand (600-1,000) words and include a minimum of one (1) image, where the image is preferably taken by the Entrant, and features primary source material (e.g., a first-person interview, peer-reviewed surveys, scientific reports, government documents, etc.).

Best Multimedia Story: All multimedia submissions must be authored by the Entrant and should include a combination of visual and/or audio elements including but not limited to photography, illustrations, text, embedded audio snippets or longer audio content, and music.

All photography submissions should utilize digital images with a minimum of one hundred and fifty (150) dots per inch (dpi) and feature detailed captions, not to exceed two hundred (200) words for each photograph. All photography submissions must be accompanied by a written article between two hundred and four hundred (200-400) words and should summarize the submission. If a photography submission is prepared using Adobe Express or similar platform, then the submission must include an embed code and an additional written summary of one hundred to two hundred (100-200) words and one (1) photograph to be featured.

Planet Forward staff will also select Winners in the following category:

Framing the Future Award: All Entrants will be eligible for the “Framing the Future Award”. The “Framing the Future Award” will be selected by University staff and awarded to the Entrant whose submission most clearly demonstrates (i) outstanding originality, (ii) depth of subject matter research, (iii) compelling use of data, and (iv) engaging use of format & presentation.

A final award will be determined by readers of Planet Forward like you.

Fan Favorite Award: All Finalists will be eligible for the “Fan Favorite Award.” The “Fan Favorite Award” will be selected by a majority vote of 2026 Planet Forward Summit attendees and via public polling, advertised on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Voting for the “Fan Favorite Award” shall end on Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 5:00 PM EST. In the event the Entrant selected by majority vote was also selected as the Winner for another award category, the “Fan Favorite Award” shall be given to the Entrant with the next highest vote total that was not otherwise selected as a Winner for another award category.

What can my story be about:

We’re looking for stories about ideas and innovations that can move the planet forward. Untold stories. Misunderstood stories. And little-known ideas, people, and breakthroughs that can make a difference, have impact, inform, and inspire. These are the topic areas we’re hoping you will explore, and can reflect your studies, research, work, experience, or dreams:

• Food: How can we feed the planet, grow better food, stop wasting so much of it?
• Water: How should we use it, conserve it, clean it, get it to places that don’t have enough of it?
• Energy: What are new ways to get it, make it cleaner, use it more efficiently?
• Mobility: What’s a better way to get around, reduce congestion, minimize the impact on the environment and the climate? What has changed since the pandemic, for better or worse, and how can we look forward?
• The built environment: How should we build for the future? What are the new materials, technologies or designs that will make better homes, offices, neighborhoods, cities and towns? How has the pandemic changed our view of city life?
• Biodiversity: How do we preserve and foster our vital ecosystems?
• Public health: What impact and takeaways can the environmental movement utilize from the pandemic and/or the response to it? How are climate change and the pandemic intertwined, and what can we learn?
• Climate justice: How can we better implement climate policies and environmental initiatives that provide fair and equal treatment to all communities, and prevent discrimination in the systems that perpetuate climate change?

How to Apply

Draft/Entry Deadline: February 9, 2026 @ 11:59pm ET.

How to enter:

• Review the Official Rules, then log into your PlanetForward.org account, or create a new one.
• Draft your story on the Planet Forward website.
• At the bottom of the page, check the “This is a Storyfest entry” checkbox and complete the entry form questions.
• Click “Submit Story.” You’re done!

For more information please check the Link

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