Ánimo Voices

The Ánimo Voices Student Writing and Art Competition was first launched during the 2017-18 academic year and, since then, has become an annual tradition to motivate, recognize, and celebrate Green Dot’s strong student voices with exciting prizes, publication, and scholarships.

For the 2025-26 academic year, we invited students to respond to the open prompt: “Rise Up.”  This year’s prompt challenged students to reflect on a time when someone demonstrated strength, resilience, or courage in the face of hardship. They explored questions such as: What gives us strength in difficult moments? How do we rise, and what do we learn in the process?

Ánimo Voices celebrates student voice in Writing, Art, and Spoken Word—all three branches of the Ánimo Voices Competition focused on the same open-ended prompt.

Every school in our network was invited to select their top two student entries for the first round of prizes. A panel of judges including teachers, literacy specialists, home office volunteers and Green Dot Ambassadors reviewed the top entries for each school and selected the winners for the first, second, and third place prizes.

All school site finalists and Green Dot winners will be honored at the main branch of the Los Angeles Public Library in Downtown Los Angeles for an Ánimo Voices celebration event on Thursday, May 21, 2026. Their work will also be compiled in a paperback publication and all finalists will receive multiple copies. The prizes, scholarships, and publication were made possible through the vision and generosity of our Green Dot Ambassadors including our founding donors Dan and Amanda Keston, together with Rob and Jane Ettinger.  We are grateful for their continuing dedication to writing and creative expression at Green Dot schools.

This year’s entries reflect the wide array of our students’ experiences, passions, and creativity. We also celebrate their teachers who encourage students to develop their unique voices to express themselves authentically for an audience and purpose, as well as foster their development along the way.