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The President's Environmental Youth Awards Program
Alameda County, CA, middle school students Clay and Chance (center) pictured with EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson (right)
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Since 1971, EPA has sponsored the President's Environmental Youth Awards (PEYA) to recognize young Americans for protecting the air, water, land, and ecology of our nation. The program promotes awareness of natural resources and encourages positive community involvement in environmental stewardship. Each year the PEYA program honors a wide variety of environmental projects developed by young individuals, school classes (K-12), summer camps, public interest groups, and youth organizations.
Youth from all 50 states and U.S. territories are invited to participate in the PEYA program. Each application is reviewed and evaluated by a regional awards panel and winners are selected based on specific criteria, including positive environmental impact on the local community and society and environmental need for the project. Every PEYA applicant receives a certificate of accomplishment signed by the President of the United States. One outstanding project in each of the 10 EPA regions is selected and honored at the National Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Projects submitted in the past have covered a wide range of subject areas including restoration of native plants and creeks, recycling programs in schools and communities, construction of gardens and nature preserves, videos and skits used in PSAs focusing on environmental issues, science projects that helped bring clean potable water to children in India and research that was accepted into evidence as part of a statewide regulation on limiting ozone emissions from ozone-generating air purifiers.
To learn more about PEYA and find the application form, visit EPA's main PEYA page.
Past PEYA Winners in Region 9
- 2007 - Otana J - Indoor Air Pollution: The Pulmonary Effects of Ozone-Generating Air Purifiers
- 2006 - Smitha, Pooja, Amol, Akash - Arizona Water Activists Karing for the Environment (AWAKE)
- 2005 - 2nd Grade LEAP Class Project Abraham Lincoln Elementary School - The Wonderful Weird World of Worms (WWWW)
- 2004 - Scott E - Hickory Creek Watershed Bioassay Project
- 2003 - Central Elementary School - Getting Green at Central
- 2002 - Sunnyside High School - IMPACTT Program