2024 High School Winners

Imani Laird is in the 12th grade at Newton South High School in Newton, Massachusetts. She was looking for college scholarship opportunities when she found the World of 8 Billion contest. Having taken AP Environmental Science and participated in similar contests, Imani thought she would play to her strengths and create a video. She decided to focus on climate migration, specifically coastal communities, as it was a topic discussed previously in her classes. Through her research, she was surprised to learn how many people live near the coast and rely on it for their livelihood. She was previously somewhat familiar with mangrove forests and became excited about how it could be a viable solution to coastal flooding.

Imani has had some experience making documentary projects. In the 7th grade she created a ten minute video for class connecting the four waves of feminism to Disney princess characters. For the World of 8 Billion project, the most challenging parts were knowing where to start and writing the script. She advises students to “just go for it, use your resources because there’s so much out there – even if you just go through the World of 8 Billion website, there’s so many resources and it’s so helpful.” She notes that the project organizer was especially useful with gathering sources, planning, and refining her ideas. She also used Canva and WeVideo to create her animations, which were helpful since this was the first time she had animated a video. Overall, Imani really enjoyed the process of seeing it all come together and showing the final video to her mom, who encouraged her to submit it to the contest.

Imani plans to use her prize money for college expenses next year. Starting this fall, she will attend Hampton University on a full scholarship, where she plans to major in Political Science with a pre-law track. Imani shared that “law impacts every aspect of my life, and there are so many paths you can take, whether environmental justice or civil rights. There are so many things you can do to help people in that capacity.” Imani is also a musician and has been playing the violin for eight years. She is part of an orchestra and has traveled to Switzerland and Italy to perform. One of her favorite compositions is The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi. In addition to winning this contest, she won second place in the 2024 National Agriculture Day Essay and second place in Walden Woods Live Deliberately Essay Contest this year.