{"id":40726,"date":"2024-08-26t19:44:08","date_gmt":"2024-08-26t19:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/?p=40726"},"modified":"2024-08-26t19:44:10","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26t19:44:10","slug":"2024-storyfest-galapagos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/2024-storyfest-galapagos\/","title":{"rendered":"alliance spotlight | gal\u00e1pagos trip highlights global sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
2024 marked the 10th year of the planet forward storyfest and storytelling expedition. students from across the nation compete in storyfest by submitting stories focused on themes such as climate, energy, food, justice, policy, or water to name a few. since 2017, lindblad expeditions in association with national geographic has offered storyfest winners an expedition to a destination that offers opportunities to investigate and write about additional issues. past trips have included alaska and iceland. in 2024, the storyfest winners went to the gal\u00e1pagos islands in the company of gw president ellen granberg, the planet forward founding director frank sesno, and multimedia editor & producer aaron dye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
this year over 154 stories were submitted from 60 universities within six categories: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
additionally, two of the 32 finalists were selected for the gw award for excellence in storytelling and the spotlight award for community storytelling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
on april 18th, at the planet forward summit the 2024 winners were announced. joy reeves, ayah mahana, and mickki garrity were selected to accompany frank sesno and aaron dye on a nine-day trip to the gal\u00e1pagos islands where they worked to create additional stories to be published on planet forward. sesno and dye serve as the students\u2019 editors-in-residence by helping the students shape their stories, answer questions, conduct interviews, and coordinate with lindblad expeditions and gal\u00e1pagos naturalists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
these trips have become part of the planet forward tradition, sesno believes the trip helps \u201cincentivize and recognize great student storytelling around the planet and gives students a once in a lifetime awesome experience to travel the world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the 2024 trip marks the first time a gw president has accompanied the team on the trip. in 2023, former gw president mark wrighton began to speak with university leadership and trustees about planet forward and the storytelling expedition which led to four trustees joining the 2023 trip to iceland. trustees grace e speights, michelle rubin, judith lane rogers, and donna hill staton self-funded their trip. they found the trip wonderful and enjoyed interacting with the storyfest winners while they sought out new story ideas. upon hearing from the trustees about the trip, president granberg decided she would join the 2024 trip in order to experience planet forward and watch the students create stories as well.<\/p>\n\n\n