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- 🎮 Celebrate Student Innovation: Student Challenge Wrap Up, 2025 G4C Festival Highlights & What’s Next!
🎮 Celebrate Student Innovation: Student Challenge Wrap Up, 2025 G4C Festival Highlights & What’s Next!
Meet this year’s Student Challenge winners, relive the NYC Next-Gen Summit, check out G4C Learn highlights from the 2025 Games for Change Festival, and join us for what’s ahead.
Games for Change
July 22, 2025
Welcome to the July G4C Learn Newsletter! First, meet the incredible winners and finalists from the 2024–2025 G4C Student Challenge! Then, catch up on inspiring G4C Learn moments from the 2025 Games for Change Festival, which for the first time ever, Student Challenge winners took the stage. Finally, see how you can join next year’s Challenge and empower your students to become future leaders. 🎉
- G4C Learn Team
🎬 That’s a wrap on the 2024-2025 Games for Change Student Challenge!
Students from around the world amazed us with their creativity, innovation, and commitment to using games for social good. From tackling climate action and peacebuilding to addressing food security, these young creators used their voices to spark real-world change. 🌍️ 🎮️
✨ Meet this year’s winning games!
🌿 Best "Nurture Yourself with Nature" Game Junior Division: Natural Pathway Adventure: Handling Eco Anxiety By: Finn A — United States, Austin Senior Division: To Turn a New Leaf By: Sophia G — United States, Basking Ridge University-Age Division: Stop. Water the Roses By: Jane A, Ziad E, Eglis C, and Ari Z — United States, Gainesville
Junior Division: Unity By: Mark H — United States, New York City Senior Division: Ripple By: Caitlynn S — United States, San Jose University-Age Division: Peace for the Planets By: Miles S — United States, Westminster
Junior / Senior Division: Eden By: Andrew C — United States, Ijamsville University-Age Division: Leaf it to the Yura By: Valeria A, Adriana B, Joaquin V, Cesar G, Jaime V — Peru, Lima
| 🍽️ Best "Outplay Hunger" Game Junior Division: The Giving Plate By: John D, Juno A, Elroi B, Tahama A — Ghana, Accra Senior Division: Harvest By: Tarek D — Egypt, Shebeen Alkom University-Age Division: The Scarcity Line By: Annabel L, Hanwen L, Anne X, Ziya T — United States, Cupertino
Junior Division: Nature Harmony By: Anise M, Jordan M, Myra W, Claudia V — United States, Acworth Senior Division: Trigoni By: Charlie S — United States, Lafayette
Junior Division: Sanctuary Simulation By: Asha L, Mitisa M, Ryef H — United States, Floral Park, NY By: Behruz A, Yevhen V — United States, Brooklyn
By: Monet P — United States, Los Angeles Senior Division: Florian |
🏆 GAME OF THE YEAR WINNERS!
 Junior/Senior Division: Harvest by Tarek D. from IDGL School, Egypt |  University Division: The Scarcity Line by Annabel L., Hanwen L., Anne X., and Ziya T. from the University of Southern California, USA |
💡 Calling all educators, parents, and students! Join next year’s Student Challenge and get ahead of the game!
Sign up early for the 2025-2026 Student Challenge to receive:
🌟 Early Access to Social Impact Themes – Plan ahead with next year’s social impact topics.
📚 Professional Development for Educators – Receive support for bringing social impact game design to your classroom via asynchronous online courses.
Game Design Courses and Career Awareness Resources for Students – Build your skills to help you design impact games for the Student Challenge and beyond.
🌍 A Global Network – Connect with educators, game creators, and changemakers worldwide.
In case you missed it, the 2025 Games for Change Festival took place last month, bringing together educators, students, and changemakers to celebrate the power of game-based learning and how games can inspire change. Here’s how G4C Learn and the Student Challenge took the center stage:
🧑🎓 Student-Led Panel: For the first time ever, Games for Change invited the Student Challenge Game of the Year winners to attend the G4C Festival. The Scarcity Line team flew in from California and China to participate in a panel, sharing their inspiring design journey, and accept an award at the G4C Awards Ceremony.
🕹️ Student Challenge Cabinet Arcade: We unveiled our first-ever G4C Learn Student Challenge Cabinet Arcade, featuring original social impact games offering attendees a first-hand experience of the Challenge.
✨ Pre-Festival Programming: We kicked things off with deep-dive sessions, including a talk featuring renowned scholars like James Paul Gee, a pioneer in the field of games, learning, and literacy. Watch here!
📚 Games & Learning Sessions: We hosted 20 sessions centered around the power of games as spaces for learning, discovery, and exploration in the classroom and beyond.
🎥 Missed #G4C2025? Don't worry - Festival videos and highlights will be uploaded to our YouTube channel in the coming weeks!
🚀 Bring Rocket League to your classroom! Do you want to introduce the fun and excitement of Rocket League to your students? 🏎️⚽💨
This FREE scholastic esports league for middle & high schools will enable educators across the country to engage their students in a safe, toxicity-free environment that combines students’ passion for gaming with a focus on well-being and social-emotional learning.
🏆 10-week season + championship tournament (Starts September 25)
💬 Prioritizes student well-being & social-emotional growth
📋 Sign-ups are open all season long (Registration Closes November 21)
Don’t miss this chance to bring your students together for fun, teamwork, and a safe, supportive esports experience!
Delve into the 2nd Annual Next-Gen Summit Highlights! During this Summit, 80 students connected with professionals from leading organizations like Discord, Unity, Microsoft, and Marvel. Together, they participated in gamified networking, a Rocket League esports tournament, and hands-on coding workshops, all designed to build essential skills for careers in tech and gaming. 💡🎮
✨ Stay tuned for more programming updates in the coming weeks!
Do you know educators who would be interested in bringing games and play with the professional support and community of G4C Learn? Share this newsletter with them!