WATCH: Lawrence High School Freshman Wins National Film Contest

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ — A freshman at Lawrence High School is one of 18 students in grades 6 through 12 from 50 countries and 44 U.S. states and territories that took home first place in this year’s “World of 7 Billion” video contest. The contest, which included over 5,000 participants, focused on population growth as it relates to one of three challenges: Feeding 10 Billion, Preventing Pollution and Advancing Girls and Women.

Arjun Agarwal, won first place with his video about "Feeding 10 Billion" people. This topic is important to Agarwal because he saw hunger firsthand while traveling in India with his parents, according to his profile on worldof7billion.org.

Agarwal will receive $1,000 cash for finishing first. The second-place winners each received $500 and six honorable mentions each received $250. Middle-school students who claimed first and second place received $500 and $250, respectively. Winning students hail from the U.S., Canada, Belgium and Slovenia.

He came into the project with some prior knowledge because his father teaches about nutrition. However, Agarwal said his eyes were opened to population impact, and how population growth relates to other global issues.

Each video also had to include at least one idea for a sustainable solution. Agarwal’s winning entry is attached to this post.

He learned about making movies at a summer camp in California. Since then, he has entered several contests, and has won awards for his films about George Washington and the Hubble Telescope, among others. He’s even created promotional videos for his father’s business.

This contest, which Agarwal first learned about in Lawrence High School’s STEM club, gave him the chance to combine his love of science with his love of filmmaking. He said it was challenging to fit everything he wanted into a 1-minute video.

His favorite documentary series is “Planet Earth II,” and a recent Hollywood favorite is “Black Panther.”
Agarwal also enjoys photography, and being active in his free time, including hiking, camping, competing in all kinds of sports and training in mixed martial arts.

He tells future contestants, “Don’t push it off. Start early even if it’s just the background research because refining takes so long and you need to give yourself time to do that.”

The contest was organized and promoted during the 2017-18 school year by Population Education, a program of Population Connection; submissions were due by Feb. 22, 2018. A panel of 61 judges—including college and high-school educators, filmmakers and topic experts—selected the winners.

• Full list of winners:
• 1st Place in Advancing Women and Girls (Middle School): Paulina Fenske, with Louisa Fowler (Lead Producer), Chloe Osbourn and Masha Velinakov of Shorewood, WI, for “Hydration for Education”
• 2nd Place in Advancing Women and Girls (Middle School): Alexis Hu, with Maggie Claussen, Alexa Baldauff and Mila Thelen of Shorewood, WI, for “A Woman of Worth”
• 1st Place in Feeding 10 Billion (Middle School): Ayush Iyer of Lancaster, PA, for “Feeding 10 Billion People on Earth”
• 2nd Place in Feeding 10 Billion (Middle School): Adriana Maratov, with Kristine Ndubisi (Lead Producer), Jacqueline Balanovsky and Shazray Akbar of Las Vegas, NV, for “What a Waste!”
• 1st Place in Preventing Pollution (Middle School): Kelly Tung of Cupertino, CA, for “Making a Healthier and Cleaner World”
• 2nd Place in Preventing Pollution (Middle School): Aurora Rodriguez of Dallas, TX, for “Preventing Pollution”
• 1st Place in Advancing Women and Girls (High School): Ramya Iyer of Omaha, NE, for “Child Marriage: There Is a Solution”
• 2nd Place in Advancing Women and Girls (High School): Thalia Kennedy of Chicago, IL, for “Women’s Education”
• 1st Place in Feeding 10 Billion (High School): Arjun Agarwal of Lawrenceville, NJ, for “Eating Up by Thinking Up”
• 2nd Place in Feeding 10 Billion (High School): Victor Elgersma of Brussels, Belgium, for “Indoor Farming: The Future of Agriculture”
• 1st Place in Preventing Pollution (High School): Joshua Romer of Tulsa, OK, for “Do-Able Renewable”
• 2nd Place in Preventing Pollution (High School): Sherron Thomas of Irving, TX, for “Protecting Our Planet From Pollution”

The attached image of Arjun Agarwal was posted on www.worldof7billion.org.