In these trying times, we need stories now, more than ever. Through Storyfest — our annual storytelling competition designed to highlight and reward the very best student-told environmental stories — we have found inspiration in both creative solutions and fascinating characters.

This year’s competition wasn’t announced from the stage at the Planet Forward Summit as usual, in the name of social distancing. But we still wanted to share with you the amazing stories entered by students from every region of the United States in our competition this year — and, of course, announce our grand prize winners.

You can watch our videos below to see the variety of stories, and students from universities across the country, and which outline their outstanding work. And, learn who our judges have selected as the best piece of student-created content for 2020.

Without further delay, we are thrilled to announce our Planet Forward Storyfest 2020 Award winners in the videos below.

Best-Written Article

And the winner is: Greta Hardy-Mittell, Carleton College. “A Society for the Birds”

Best Multimedia / Podcast

And the winner is: Avery Van Etten, Northwestern University. “Sea-level rise threatens the Florida Keys” (3-part series)

Best Photo Essay

And the winner is: Cate Twining-Ward, George Washington University. “Clinging onto chimps: Why you should think of chimpanzees during the climate crisis”

Best Short or Shareable Video

And the winner is: Jake Meyers, University of Arizona. “Can urban farming feed the future?”

Best Video

And the winner is: Sarah Sem, George Washington University. “What’s the beef with meatless burgers?”

Fan Favorite Award

And the winner is: Deepti Bansal-Gage, George Washington University. “Wait! Before you squish that bug….”

Thank you!

Storyfest could not happen without the tremendous support from our sponsors, including: Lindblad Expeditions, Discovery, Comcast, the Walton Family Foundation, National Geographic, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, the Arizona State University Global Futures Laboratory, 3 Degrees, Middlebury College and, of course, the George Washington University.

Also, please make sure to mark your calendars for our rescheduled 2020 Planet Forward Summit, which will be held Oct. 8-10 at the George Washington University. We look forward to seeing you there.