The New Leaders Initiative (NLI) is pleased to announce a call for nominations for the 2022 Brower Youth Awards.
Donor Name: Brower Youth Awards
Country: Selected Countries
Type of Grant: Award
Deadline: 05/01/2023
Size of the Grant: $3,000
Details:
Earth Island Institute established the Brower Youth Awards for Environmental Leadership in 2000 to honor renowned environmental advocate David Brower, who said, “I love to see what young people can do, before someone old tells them it’s impossible.” It is with this spirit that they recognize the outstanding leadership efforts of young people who are working for the protection of their shared planet.
The Brower Youth Awards program invests in the winners’ continued success by providing ongoing access to resources, mentors, and opportunities to develop leadership skills.
During their stay in California, the recipients will participate in leadership activities and workshops on coaching, visioning, public speaking and developing media relations. The week of activities culminates in the awards ceremony.
A Few Tips
- Leadership: The Brower Youth Awards are looking to recognize the leader of a group or an effort. While they will consider applicants who are implementing individual efforts, it is their tendency to focus on leaders of groups and efforts.
- Research and science fair projects: Many research and science fair projects are individual and/or one-time efforts. As such, they are difficult to compare to the leadership of ongoing projects. They will not consider applicants who are implementing research and science fair projects, unless it is part of ongoing environmental efforts involving a larger group.
- Earth Day and one-time conferences: They understand the impact and necessity of Earth Day, conferences, and one-time gatherings. However, we typically will not consider one-time gatherings for the award, unless the event produced long-term measurable impacts in which you have continued to play a significant leadership role.
Award Details
Each of the six recipients of the Brower Youth Awards will receive a $3,000 cash prize, a professionally produced short film about their work from an Emmy Award-winning film crew, and flight and lodging accommodations for a weeklong trip to the San Francisco Bay Area.
What they Look For
- Applicants are assessed on the following criteria:
- Outstanding Youth Leadership
- You played the major leadership role in creating, organizing and implementing your project or campaign(s).
- Issue & Approach
- Your project is applying fresh solutions and approaches to relevant environmental challenges.
- Project Impact, Scalability, & Replicability
- Is the project’s impact significant? Can your work be used as a model for other communities or campuses?
- Charisma, Personal Commitment, & Trajectory
- What draws you to this work? What would winning a Brower Youth Award mean to you?
Eligibility Criteria
Youth environmental change leaders ages 13 to 22 (as of May 1, 2023) living in North America (including Mexico, Canada, and some Caribbean Islands) and U.S. territories are encouraged to apply.
Application Process
- All applications must be completed using their online process. Please notify us well in advance of the deadline if you foresee any problems with submitting an application online.
- You must complete your own application. Parents, friends, mentors, teachers, etc. must not complete it for you.
- In addition to meeting award eligibility requirements and following all instructions to complete the online application, each applicant must submit:
- a photograph of yourself
- if you are a semifinalist, you will be asked for a letter of support from someone who is familiar with you and your environmental work (cannot be from a parent or guardian).
For more information, visit Brower Youth Awards.
