3rd Adobe Youth Voices Awards Announces Winners

The winners of the third annual Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) Awards, a global online competition that invites students aged 13-19 years to use digital media to express their vision for driving positive change in their communities, have been unveiled.

A record 2,400 students from 50 countries submitted projects in 2014 on social issues such as bullying, body image, and climate change. First and second place winners were chosen by a luminary panel of judges, while Audience Award winners were determined by 200,000 votes cast online.

“Since its inception, AYV has impacted the lives of more than 190,000 students around the world. It’s empowered them to make a difference in their communities, and build the digital media making skills that will help them get ahead,” said Michelle Crozier Yates, the Adobe director of corporate responsibility. “With what they’ve learned, 88% of AYV youth tell us they feel confident about their ability to ideate, collaborate, adapt and express their point of view. 95% believe creativity is important to their future success. We look forward to making the AYV program even more globally accessible.”

AYV Award winners are chosen in seven categories: animation, documentary, photo essay, music video, narrative, poetry and campaign poster. Youth can submit projects individually or as teams working with an AYV educator. First and second place winners are named in each of the seven categories by a diverse panel of judges, including luminaries working in art, film, and other creative fields, alongside AYV educators, student alumni, and Adobe representatives.

“Everyone today has the tools to express themselves. This combination of digital tools and self-expression is very empowering and can create powerful change. I am honored to be an AYV judge and to have the opportunity to support these young media makers,” said Patrick Coyne, editor and designer of Communication Arts magazine and AYV 2014 judge.

The public determines an Audience Award winner in each category by voting for their favorite projects online. This year, the 21 winning projects were chosen from a pool of 142 finalists, and over 200,000 public votes were cast.

AYV Award winners and their affiliated schools and organizations will each receive a range of prizes, including donations of Samsung Galaxy Tablets, copies of Adobe CS Production Premium Suite, a 1-year Adobe Creative Cloud membership and a monetary donation to a charity of their choice.

The 2014 winners are:
1). Animation
First Place: Hunger’s Core, Christine Chung, Salwa Majoka, Northview
Heights Secondary School, Canada
Second Place: Train of Life, Tess Denham, San Marino High School, USA
Audience Award: TechJunk, Sesh Sadasivam, Abhishek Krishna, Inavamsi B.
Enaganti, Sri Kumaran Children’s Home – CBSE, India

2). Documentary
First Place: Victim, Brandon Charlton, Kennedy Houston, Maysles
Documentary Center, USA
Second Place: International Boulevard, Zoe Yi, Rebecca Dharmapalan,
Oakland School for the Arts, USA
Audience Award: Support, Ziyang Ding, Tianyao Xu, The High School
Affiliated to Renmin University of China, China

3). Music Video
First Place: Patience, Yvan Gonzalez, Seven Trees Community Center, USA
Second Place: Let Me Dream, Sebastian Tuma, Tsote Valashiya, Shriyansi
Khanal, Immanuel Yeboah, Daniel Mandache, Spotlight, United Kingdom
Audience Award: Love Mission, Tautvydas Marcinkevicius, Petar Karapenev,
Krzysztof Wlodarek, Abdalla Ali, Sude Simsek, Luke Wallace-Esnard,
Dikembe Cabey-Lee, Amina Azong, Anya O’Mahony, Sandra Mikosinska, The
Lammas School, United Kingdom

4). Narrative
First Place: Vanished, Vanessa Fuentes, Alicia Garchitorena, MACLA, USA
Second Place: Aspaunity, Josh Gutierrez, Lizbeth Cisneros, Denise Panuco,
Jesus Gonzalez, Jonathan Carrasco, Mt. Pleasant High School, USA
Audience Award: Get a Life, Bianca Toderean, Paul Turean, “Alexandru
Papiu Ilarian” High School Dej, Romania

5). Photo Essay
First Place: Inner Journey, Jihyeon Park, Irvington High School, USA
Second Place: Little Place on Earth, Agata Mroczek, Fundacja 5Medium,
Poland
Audience Award: Adams’ Peak- a Pilgrimage for Harmony, Prabhashana
Meegammana, Dilan Wickramakeerthi, Shilpa Sayura Foundation, Sri Lanka

6). Poetry
First Place: Life, Mihai Tiu, Colegiul National “Ecaterina Teodoroiu”,
Romania
Second Place: Destination: Earth!, Joseph Steve Jiménez, Randall
Quesada, Casa de la Juventud Mora, Costa Rica
Audience Award: We are…, Gyanna Adino, Joanah Diala, Randolph
Massachusetts, USA

7). Poster Campaign
First Place: Love the Diversity, Sayoka Ariga, New Albany High School,
USA
Second Place: Held Back by Stress, Max Stevens, South Carleton High
School, Canada
Audience Award: Be Creative, Abdullah Al-Dahshan, Hashemite University,
Jordan

An Adobe Systems Incorporated article.