What: Earth Island Institute established The Brower Youth Award for Environmental Leadership in 2000 to honor renowned environmental advocate David Brower. The Brower Youth Awards are housed in the New Leaders Initiative program at Earth Island Institute and we are thrilled to call forth a new generation of leaders for our 14th Annual Brower Youth Awards.
David Brower was quoted as saying, “I love to see what young people can do, before someone old tells them it's impossible.” It is with this spirit that we recognize the outstanding leadership efforts of young people who are working for the protection of our shared planet. We elevate the accomplishments of these new leaders and invest in their continued success by providing ongoing access to resources, mentors, and opportunities to develop leadership skills.
Who: Young environmental change leaders ages 13 to 22 (as of July 1, 2013) living in North America (including Mexico, Canada, some Caribbean Islands) and US “Territories.”
When: Completed applications must be submitted online by May 13, 2013 9:00 p.m. Pacific time.
The Award
Each of the six recipients of the Brower Youth Awards will receive a $3,000 cash prize, a professionally produced short film about their work, and flight and lodging accommodations for a week long trip to the San Francisco Bay Area.
During their stay in California, the recipients will participate in a camping trip, leadership activities, speaking and media engagements, and trainings and environmental conferences giving them a chance to meet with mentors and peers. The week of activities culminates in the awards ceremony in front of more than 900 guests at the Nourse Theatre in San Francisco on October 22, 2013.
Application Procedures
Please note that all applications must be completed using our online process. No paper submissions will be accepted. Please notify us well in advance of the deadline if you foresee any problems with submitting an application online.
You must complete your own application. Parents, friends, mentors, teachers, etc. must not complete it for you. (If you have a special circumstance or need and cannot fill out your application yourself or need assistance accessing our online application please contact us at bya@earthisland.org or 510-859-9144 to make alternate arrangements.)
Please look over the eligibility requirements and make sure that you and your project fall under the requirements of the Brower Youth Awards.
Read the instructions and prompts carefully and fill out the application. Please keep track of the email and password that you use to create and save your application. By saving the application, you will be able to return to it, unlimited times, before the deadline, to work on it.
Supply 1 photograph. Please be aware of the space limit. Keep photos to jpg or png formats.
Obtain a “Letter of Support”. The letter should be from someone who is familiar with you and your environmental work. The recommendation should not come from a parent or legal guardian. It should describe your relationship with this person and why they believe you are a strong environmental leader and thus a strong candidate for the Brower Youth Awards.
Read and sign the “Terms of Agreement”.
Applications will be accepted until 9:00 PT May 13, 2013. Please do not wait until the last minute to submit your application. Applications submitted after the deadline due to technical issues will not be accepted.
Please contact us well in advance of the deadline for support with the submission of your application or clarifying questions by emailing: bya@earthisland.org.
We review all applications and an external panel of judges vets all semi–finalists. If you are selected as a semi–finalist, we will request a Skype Video Call with you. We can help you to arrange this call if you do not have access to Skype. Finalists will be notified by mid-July.
Outstanding leadership means that you played the major leadership role in creating, organizing and implementing your project or campaign(s). We are looking for individuals with vision, motivation, and leadership skills. Project impact includes how the project benefited the environment and community in terms of measurable results (e.g. acres of wildlife habitat protected or restored, number of people engaged in environmental issues because of the project, numbers of children no longer exposed to toxins, etc.).
Your project should accomplish one or more of the following broad objectives:
Aim to eliminate or decrease our use of finite natural resources and our negative impats on ecosystems and communities.
Work to protect ecosystems, species, indigenous cultures and other irreplaceable elements of the world’s natural heritage.
Strive to re-establish the healthy functions of an ecosystem; parts of ecosystems; and human communities that manage ecosystems.
We encourage a diversity of strategies to achieve your objectives including, but not limited to, curriculum design, media campaigns, policy changes, fundraising efforts, mobilization drives.
To learn more about the past Brower Youth Award recipients and projects, please visit www.broweryouthawards.org.
A Few Tips
Leadership:
The Brower Youth Awards are looking to recognize the leader of a group or an effort. While we will consider applicants who are implementing individual efforts, it is our tendency to focus on leaders of groups and efforts.
Research and science fair projects:
Many research and science fair projects are individual and/or one–time efforts. As such, they are difficult to compare to the leadership of on-going projects. We will not consider applicants who are implementing research and science fair projects, unless it is part of ongoing environmental efforts involving a larger group.
Earth Day and one-time conferences:
We understand the impact and necessity of Earth Day, conferences and one–time gatherings. However, we typically will not consider one–time gatherings for the award, unless the event produced long–term measurable impacts in which you have continued to play a significant leadership role.
Best practices webinar:
Join us for us for one or more of our webinars held during application season. Dates will be posted on our website and on Facebook and Twitter. These webinars are a terrific way to learn the ins and outs of the application and to get all your questions answered by New Leaders Initiative staff.
