2024 High School Winners

Andy Lin is a senior at South High School in Valley Stream, New York. He was assigned the World of 8 Billion contest in his AP Environmental Science class. He chose climate migration as his topic because he found it the most interesting and he thought it was currently becoming more prevalent. Andy also knew that the world had recently reached 8 billion people and that a lot of species are going extinct. He was surprised to find out that many species are going extinct before we can even discover them: “It is like they were never there to begin with.”

When he was planning his video, Andy found inspiration from past winners of the contest. This was his first time creating a video, and he found their pacing, editing, and amount of information included to be great examples. He mentioned that because of the time limit he needed to thoughtfully choose what information he should keep. The most challenging part of the process for Andy was learning how to edit. He used iMovie to record and had never used editing software before. He watched many YouTube videos for tips and had to crop down his original three-minute video to one minute, which took a long time. He advises future participants to “start with a good plan to help center your ideas, which will save a lot of time editing.”

Andy plays a lot of sports, including football and tennis at school. He also runs track and wrestles for fun. He likes learning new things and playing chess and has started to read as a hobby again, which he said has been difficult to get back into since he hasn’t regularly read for fun since elementary school. He is inspired by the dedication that artists and creators showcase online. He plans on using his prize winnings for college. He will be attending St. John’s University in the fall and is thinking about majoring in biochemistry with hopes of a career working in the pharmaceutical industry.