2022年中级学校获奖者

Kayla Ling is an 8th grade student at The Nueva School in Hillsborough, California. Her video takes a look at solving homelessness by focusing on individuals at a grassroots level. Kayla chose her video topic after noticing the problem in her local Bay Area community. “I’ve definitely noticed that with time, even in my short lifetime, homelessness rates and numbers and overall population have skyrocketed, but prior to this competition, I didn’t really know the connection they had,” she said.

Kayla wanted to be sure that she was coming up with her own unique solution, and that can be difficult with a complex issue like homelessness. “I’d say the hardest part was establishing a solid solution that also feels like a fresh take,” she said. “There are dozens of ways for us to combat this issue of homelessness, and there are some really effective ones out there, and I wanted to bring in something that not everyone knows about.”

Her solution of working with individuals was inspired by a trend she noticed when her family lived in Taiwan for a year. “In Taiwan, they create micro-communities. So every few blocks there is a community leader that knows everyone,” she said. “Having those grounded micro-communities showed me how powerful they could be, and I thought about that in regards to homelessness.”

Kayla has been interested in filmmaking for a few years, and her video “We Have a Climate Crisis – Who’s to Blame?” won Best in Festival at the Citizens Environmental Council Student Film Festival last year.

Aside from filmmaking, Kayla is involved in social justice and climate action. She is part of her school’s feminism club and antiracism club, but says that “my ultimate passion lies in environmentalism and responding to the climate crisis because I feel so much urgency for that issue.” She’s also learning four languages, as well as how to play the drums!

Kayla thinks that her solution is not unique to just homelessness, and is a valuable way to frame many of society’s problems. “My video really talks about looking at things from the grassroots level to solve issues,” she said. “I think that starting from the bottom up with the people who are really individually affected by an issue could be applied to many different issues in different ways.”