The Adobe Foundation today announced the winners of the third annual Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) Awards, a global, online competition inviting students ages 13-19 to use digital media to express their vision for driving positive change in their communities. A record 2,400 students from 50 countries submitted projects this year on social issues including: 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, director, corporate responsibility, Adobe. “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. Winners are showcased on the Adobe Youth Voices website.

The 2014 winners are:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About Adobe Youth Voices
Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) is the Adobe Foundation’s global initiative to ignite Creative Confidence in youth by using digital media to express their views on social issues. Through programs like AYV, and by increasing creativity in education, Adobe believes we will better equip young people to be the problem solvers, critical thinkers and leaders of tomorrow. To learn more about AYV, its point of view on creativity in education and how you can be involved, please visit http://youthvoices.adobe.com/.

About the Adobe Foundation
The Adobe Foundation is a 501(c)(3) private foundation created and funded by Adobe Systems Incorporated to leverage human, technological and financial resources to drive social change and community improvements.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

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OLD Adobe

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. We develop innovative products that enable our customers around the world to foster creativity and collaboration, gain efficiencies, conserve resources and promote learning. See how Adobe solutions are driving positive impacts. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.