Student Innovation Contest: 2021 winners
The Student Innovation Contest showcased the best of this year’s student stewardship projects.

All of us at Raincoast were inspired by the tenacity, bravery, and optimism of young people like Robin Buss, Mercedes Robinson, and Coastal Insights host Peter Underwood. These young stewards showed us that passion and the pursuit of a better future can motivate you at any age.
Coincident with Raincoast’s Coastal Insights Program, the Take a Stand team hosted a Stream to Sea: Conservation, Community and Cultures initiative, alongside the Vancouver Maritime Museum, to educate youth about wild salmon as BC’s Foundational species, their vast cultural significance, and about youth conservation activities provided by a wild salmon action kit.
Both organizations observed that there were more young people in BC who felt called to make a positive impact on the world around them.
Many teachers and students have reached out to us to let us know what they are doing in their own home communities to help educate, inspire, and be a voice for change. To encourage and celebrate their work, we wanted to showcase these stewardship ideas to the world and ignite a passion for environmental stewardship in students from all over BC.
To do so, Raincoast Conservation Foundation partnered with Take A Stand: Youth for Conservation to create the 2021 Student Innovation Challenge.
2021 Student Innovation Challenge
We asked students in grades 3-12 to let us know what they have been doing to help create positive change in their local community. Submissions came in the form of videos, short presentations, and artwork. They were judged by a team of scientists, film makers, and media specialists, including Misty MacDuffie, Lauren Eckert, and Alex Harris (all affiliated with Raincoast), along with Nic Teichrob and Fernando Lessa of Take A Stand: Youth for Conservation.
We received six multi-participant entries, collectively engaging seventy-six students within Grades 3 to 12. The judges were wowed by all the entries, and were pleased to present an award to each entry this year.
The Grand Prize Winner of this year’s Student Innovation Contest was awarded to director Arian Tomar and producer Viggo Henelius of Pearson College UWC. Arian and his producer Viggo won for their incredible film “Canaries of the Coast”.

The film focuses on Pedder Bay, a place that looks pristine at first glance, but appears differently when you look under its surface.


The award for Best Creative Expression was given to the Highland Elementary Grade 5 Class for their colorful and imaginative Salmon Art project. Each piece beautifully told the story of salmon’s importance to our environment and how it acts as the base for coastal rainforest ecosystems to thrive.



The award for Best Overview of a Critical Habitat was given to Skyridge Montessori school for their film submission titled “The Estuary”.
The film explores the three main rivers that empty into the Squamish Estuary, and familiarizes viewers with some of the amazing organisms that live within them. It also describes the brackish water conditions that create the unique environment of the estuary.
The award for Most Creative Community Initiative was awarded to Stoney Creek Community School, specifically to a group of students known as The Salmon Savers. The Salmon Savers produced a short film that highlighted a rain garden to safeguard salmon habitat, as well as showcasing some of the art and acting activities that the students have been working on recently.
The Future Stewards Award was presented to the Highroads Academy for their beautiful and colorful salmon artwork. The judges saw huge artistic potential in these beautiful pieces, and are confident that these artists have what it takes to inspire others.
All the video entries from this year’s contest are available for viewing at the Take A Stand: Youth for Conservation website.
The past year has been a difficult one. It has been hard to feel hopeful and inspired to make the world a better place. This makes these artistic submissions all the more important and impressive.
Asta Mail, Education Coordinator of Raincoast Conservation Foundation, and Allison Kermode, SFU Professor Emeritus and Director of Take a Stand, who together launched, coordinated, and celebrated the contest with winning youth entrants, look forward to partnering for future contests.
Both Raincoast and Take a Stand thank all the participants for sharing their stories, passion, and progress with us. The heart and creativity students demonstrated was compelling and inspiring.
We look forward to seeing what these incredible future stewards create next!
You can help
Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.
We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.
