2019 High School Winners

Rana Duan is a sophomore at Dulles High School in Sugar Land, Texas. She first heard about the contest as a ninth grader when her World Geography teacher used the project as an extra credit opportunity. This year, Rana decided she would participate in the contest and entered on her own. Rana was born in Ohio and then moved to Michigan where she lived until 4^th grade. She tells us, “since I lived in Michigan and the great lakes are a big deal there it was important to me to do something about the environment.” She went on to share that Asian Carp is a big problem for the great lakes and decided to focus her video on the problems that invasive species pose to biodiversity.

Rana began creating videos, posters, and PowerPoint presentations in middle school. That is also when she got into digital art and drawing. For her video, she decided to combine digital art with filmmaking noting that she doesn’t like to act, so drawing gives her the ability to create films without having to actually be in them. Although she’s had prior filmmaking experience she found that condensing her script down to the minute requirement was challenging. Rana was able to overcome this challenge and she offers some advice, “Really do your research and make a plan that you really stick to. It helps to know what you’re doing in advance to keep you motivated.” As for her prize money, she is still debating what to do with it. One idea she is considering is donating it to a wildlife preservation organization, or an organization that works to help women and girls.

Rana loves to debate and has been participating in debate for the past 5 years. In middle school there wasn’t a dedicated debate team, so she participated outside of that setting on weekends. Now, at Dulles High School she is part of the debate team and the last debate she won was at a local high school. Rana is currently learning Spanish and Chinese. She plays the viola and has recently taken up guitar, too! Her future career goals are to go into business and perhaps become an entrepreneur someday: “I have an opportunity to make change in the world and impact as many people as possible.”