Over 4,000 Students Creatively Uplift Their Climate Heroes

June 21, 2023

As summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere, another Ocean Awareness Contest comes to a close. The 2023 Contest, Climate Heroes in Action, invited students to look beyond our environmental problems to learn about and uplift the people solving them. If we recognize what people are doing to fight the climate crisis, we can find hope and see a path forward.

Thank you to everyone who contributed and shared their voices, creativity, and knowledge with us. We are beyond excited to review the submissions and learn about the climate heroes who inspire you. Many of these climate heroes will be featured on our Climate Heroes Resource, an ever-growing page to meet scientists, artists, activists, and others who are fighting climate change everyday.

“We know that young people are growing up in a scary environmental reality and are inheriting a precarious future not of their own making,” said Linda Cabot, founder and president of Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs. “By centering our Contest theme around solutions, and giving youth a platform to share their hopes and values in a safe and welcoming space, we hope that we have helped them to feel inspired, motivated, and hopeful about their role in changing the trajectory of their future. Finding the courage to speak up for our blue planet makes our Contest participants heroes in their own right.”

One of the most inspiring parts of the Contest is seeing our global youth community grow and contribute to the largest collection of student environmental arts in the world. In our 12th year we welcome 3,906 new participants and 365 returning participants from 54 U.S. states and territories and 82 countries, including our first ever submissions from Yemen, Nicaragua, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

We received 1,652 Junior submissions and 2,619 Senior submissions, for a grand total of 4,271 submissions! Congratulations all and welcome to the Bow Seat community!

Now we start the judging process. Our awesome team of judges will read, observe, and watch all of the submissions, help us decide the finalists, and ultimately select the winners. We put a lot of time and care into this process, so you can expect to learn the results in November.

In the meantime, check out our Opportunities page to discover other ways to get involved in ocean advocacy and environmental stewardship. Keep an eye out in September when we launch the 2024 Ocean Awareness Contest. Any ideas on what the theme might be?