2025 High School Winners

Josephine Lee is in the 11th grade at Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, New Jersey. She is interested in film creation and found out about the contest while looking for competitions. Joesphine was drawn to the World of 8 Billion student video contest because she is “passionate about sustainability and learning how to make the world a more equitable place for everyone to live.” She wasn’t fully aware of how much child wellbeing could be affected by things like public transportation and mentioned that even though she takes the bus to school, she never fully thought about the implications that transit could have on childhood development. “Learning that simply living next to a major road is associated with issues like increased risk of asthma, cardiovascular disease, adverse reproductive outcomes, and mortality shocked me,” she reflected.

Josephine got the idea for her video after learning about NYC’s new congestion pricing, and she was inspired to research the sustainable aspects of the program. She found that the funding earned could help maintain and expand the New York subway system and that less traffic will have a positive impact on the air quality and health of residents. This wasn’t Joesphine’s first time creating a video; she has made a lot of movie trailers for fun and has a long standing interest in how TV and film can be used for education. She found the most challenging part of the World of 8 Billion contest was fitting everything she wanted to say into the one-minute time limit. “There was so much information to share and you want the information to contain as much depth as possible but allow people to retain the information. The script writing was the hardest—it had to be very intentional.” She advises future participants to be as creative as you can, and to make the video engaging with diverse content and visuals to draw people in.

Josephine likes to watch political dramas and has learned a lot from them. She is the co-founder and president of the political science club at her school and is hosting a voter registration event for students that recently turned 17. She enjoys making pesto pasta with her family, is a part of DECA national competitive business club, and plays on the varsity tennis team. Josephine recently won an honorable mention in the C-Span StudentCam contest and her documentary placed 3rd in the National History Day Competition for New Jersey. She also started a YouTube Channel, Bad News Good News where she interviews sustainability experts. She is interested in going into public policy to learn more about specific political pathways individuals and NGOs can use to advocate for sustainability.