2023 High School Winners

Stella Abarca is in the 10th grade at Plainfield East High School in Plainfield, Illinois. She found the World of 8 Billion student video contest while looking for scholarship opportunities on the web. Stella became interested in the topic of waste when she created a website about sustainable architecture. She recently watched a documentary on fast fashion and thought that would be an interesting topic to use for her video. She has always been interested in population and its impacts and was “shocked to learn about the impact of fast fashion because it is often underestimated and we need to educate the public as much as we can.”

Stella was inspired by an art exhibit in Chicago that made pictures out of clothing. She thought it was a great way to upcycle used clothing. This was the first time she has created a video like this and she found it challenging creating the pictures in the video with the clothing that they had in the house. For example, she had to revise the Earth several times so it would be recognizable. Stella advises future contest participants to think outside of the box and before picking a topic, dive deeper into the subtopics and think about which one may stand out to the judges. Stella recommends choosing a topic that is relevant because it helps people connect to your message. For example, she shared, “we all see a lot of clothing consumption in our daily lives.”

She is inspired by her cousin who is a fashion designer and is excited that her cousin’s friend, a professor, wants to use her video when covering circular fashion in their class. Stella plans on saving her winnings for college. She is very interested in science and will most likely pursue a degree either in the medical field or environmental science, but she is still exploring her options. She is the oldest of three and very involved in school. Some of her extracurriculars include, badminton, the environmental club, choir, theater, and her school’s Latin American Student Organization (LASO). Stella also plays the piano, guitar, and ukulele and will represent her school’s speech team at regionals this year.