2024 High School Winners

Parmida Farzad is in the 11th grade at Coppell High School in Coppell, Texas. She chose to create a video on climate migration because she felt the most emotionally connected to that topic. She has seen the effects of climate migration through traveling, especially in her home country of Iran. Parmida also heard a lot of stories from her family about people who have been displaced because of climate, which motivated her to create a video on the topic to inspire change. She was familiar with some of the challenges associated with a growing population through her IB Environmental Systems and Societies class, but after completing her research for this competition, she was surprised how high the percentage of displaced people worldwide is. It was also shocking to learn how many people affected by climate change are from less economically developed countries.

Parmida loves art and wanted to incorporate her passion into her video. She was inspired by advertisements that encourage people to care about the environment and decided to have a live actor complete a painting throughout the video to help viewers form an emotional connection. She also wanted to create the awareness that there are many people who have to live in the changing conditions caused by climate change. This was the first time Parmida had created a video like this. The most challenging part of the process was figuring out how to use the camera that she had access to at school. She was able to manipulate camera settings to convey her message, intentionally starting off the video fuzzy and then transforming to a bright and vibrant setting when outside. Her advice to future contest participants is to “not be scared to be creative. It’s more fun and it can be a lot more interesting.”

Parmida recently received two regional medals in the Visual Arts Scholastic Events (VASE) competition for drawing and sculpture. In addition to art, she teaches Persian dance and culture, coaches middle school YMCA basketball, tutors elementary students in math and reading, and is a part of the broadcasting program & the Environmental Club at her school. Parmida also started a club called SWANA (Southwest Asia and Northern Africa) which identifies challenges and discusses how members can support through actions like petitioning and donating. She is inspired by activists because she “feels scared sometimes to be outspoken, but seeing them advocating for things they are passionate about is inspiring.” She plans on saving her prize money for college and is considering pursuing a degree in environmental studies, science or engineering.