Last month’s (7th Annual) CAVU Student Showcase was our biggest and most successful yet! From Nepal’s Project Tapari, recipient of this year’s Founder’s Award, to a Bee Hotel and other innovative climate solutions developed by students across multiple continents, every project submitted demonstrated what is possible when young people have the tools and support to tackle real-world challenges with creativity, courage, and hope.

This year’s goal for the Student Showcase was simple: bring the incredible stories, solutions, and young changemakers of the Climate Innovation Challenge to a wider audience than ever before by leveraging climate and education-focused influencers, and using our online platforms to introduce CAVU to a global audience. Thanks to a new Showcase format and the support of creators and collaborators who share our vision, student projects were engaged and viewed by tens of thousands of people around the world.

While we’re proud of the Showcase’s growth, what excites me most is what it represents: thousands of people inspired by student-led climate action and a growing community that sees how impactful youth-led solutions are!

Projects like Our Vertical Shield from Kericho Academy in Kenya, which took on the Climate Innovation Challenge and now has a growing program which transforms everyday spaces, like a vertical wall, into life supporting gardens. This project won Most Creative/Engaging in its age group during this past month’s Student Showcase, but its larger impact is the ripple effect created by its ongoing growth as an idea and achievement to the students at Kericho and beyond. This is the part of the CAVU story we want more people to know about!

At CAVU, we know that none of this happens without YOU!

Whether you’ve participated in the Climate Innovation Challenge, supported CAVU through a donation, shared our work with others, partnered with us, or simply followed along and cheered on our students, YOU are helping young people develop the skills, confidence, and agency to tell their story and build a healthier and more sustainable future.

Thank you for being part of this journey. I invite you to explore CAVU.org’s new website, watch this year’s winning Showcase videos, and, if you’re able, support our work as we continue expanding opportunities for students around the world.

Gratefully yours,

Jordan Vaughan Smith

PS: Interested in how you can get involved? Want to volunteer? Ask us how you can bring CIC to your community! Email: thrive@cavu.org

PSS: Registration is open – we’ve never made it easier to sign up – are you a student or a teacher? Register now! cavu.org/takethechallenge

---

Dedicated to the student solutions that power a brighter future for our entire planet.

---

As these limitless renewable resources reach a historic global milestone, Climate Innovation Challenge students, Bleakley, Nina and Fern from Maclay School in Florida are exploring how clean energy can work alongside the land and the communities that depend on it.

As these Climate Innovation Challenge students are discovering, the power of solar can do MUCH more than simply reduce climate pollution. It can strengthen food and energy security, creating real solutions as hotter temperatures threaten agriculture around the world.

But building a cleaner energy future requires more than simply installing additional solar panels. It requires thoughtful planning and creativity. Where should renewable energy projects be located? How can they best serve communities? And how can clean energy infrastructure work alongside other essential needs, including agriculture and food production?

Those are exactly the kinds of questions students are exploring through CAVU’s Climate Innovation Challenge.

Watch Sunny Side Up: Agrivoltaics as a Positive Climate Solution and discover more student-created climate solutions through CAVU’s Student Showcase.

The global rise of wind and solar gives us reason for hope. The work of students like Bleakley, Nina, and Fern gives us another.

It reminds us that the clean energy transition is not simply something young people will inherit. They are already studying it, questioning it, and helping shape what comes next.

Want the spotlight on your climate solution? Submit it to daniel@cavu.org

---

---

Communities Honor and Celebrate 2026 Student Showcase Winners

From a student project in Nepal that reimagines traditional uses of areca to help solve single-use plastic waste, to a group of students in Kenya choosing to repurpose walls in their community into lush gardens that provide for all, students from around the global CAVU community celebrated the conclusion and winners of this year’s CAVU Student Showcase.

The Student Showcase ceremonies in Kenya and South Asia (India, Nepal) welcomed representatives, students, and teachers from dozens of schools, and offered local guests the opportunity to recognize the hard work, creativity, and teamwork students demonstrated throughout the 2026 Climate Innovation Challenge.

Watch speeches and moments from our Student Showcase events and click here to see all of the student videos submitted this year.

We are grateful to every learner, teacher, school, guest, and CAVU Africa supporter who helped make the ceremony such a meaningful conclusion to this year’s Challenge.

---

---