2021 High School Winners

Luana Escamilla is a 12^th grade student at Colégio FAAP in São Paulo, Brazil. Luana was researching global competitions when she discovered the World of 7 Billion contest. She was, “very intrigued by the competition’s proposal and found it incredible how it really makes us think outside the box and opens our minds to serious problems of humanity.”

Luana shared with us a little about the inspiration behind creating a video for the Re-Imagining Industrial Systems topic. “I wanted to spread a message and raise awareness about a topic that is little discussed. Child labor is completely inhumane and many of the products we use, unfortunately, have the blood of children. Sometimes many young people feel that they cannot do anything to change the world, but just talking about issues and giving them visibility already creates a great impact on our community.” She went on, “today, industrial systems dictate the production of the resources that sustain the world, producing practically everything that we consume on a daily basis. However, the truth behind these products is often silenced and that’s why I decided to talk about it.” Before participating in the contest, Luana was aware of the impacts of population growth on the environment, mainly with the excessive production of garbage, but, she shared, “I had no deep knowledge of the other consequences caused by the great procurement of raw materials and the impact it has on the lives of workers.”

Despite being the first time she’s won a prize for a video she created, Luana has had an affinity for filmmaking since a young age and loves preparing and editing scripts. She shared that anytime there was the option to deliver school assignments in video format she would always take it. For Luana, the most challenging part of the contest was “to illustrate a topic as delicate as child labor.” She spent a lot of time reflecting on how to approach it and then, “I had the idea of using the shadow theater, which I think was unique and worked very well!” Luana’s advice for future contest participants is, “do not be afraid of saying what you believe, just do it! Additionally, don’t try to say 300 things in the space of a minute. Assemble a script in a clear and objective way.”

Luana lives with her parents and older sister. She is passionate about social causes and has always enjoyed being informed about current events. Last October Luana started a non-profit project called “Fluxo Sem Tabu“, which provides sanitary napkins to the most vulnerable strata of society, breaking the menstruation taboo and debating the poverty of the period worldwide. She shared, “since then, I have been dedicating my time so that the project grows more and more. Today, there are 700 menstruations attended by the project and I hope to continue helping people and working on the project for many years.” On her free time, she enjoys dancing and baking (especially cakes and cookies). Luana plans to invest her prize money in her future education and is considering perusing business management in order to learn more about logistics and ethical business practices.