Engage the whole student.
Help change the whole world.

Students Rebuild

What is Students Rebuild?

A ready-made adventure in global learning for K-12 students that calls on their thinking, creativity, and compassion—and it’s free and flexible enough to teach however you choose. Part lesson in global citizenship, part art project, it's a whole student approach to change the whole world.

How Students Rebuild Works

Explore a global issue

Explore a global issue

Each school year we issue a Challenge, a critical problem faced by young people in the world, and invite students to respond. Register, then dig in using our free resources.

In 2011 we learned about the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan.

In 2011 we learned about the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan.

Make art and mail it in

Make art and mail it in

Use our easy-to-follow instructions to create specific artwork related to this year’s Challenge. When it’s finished, join hundreds of thousands of other participants in sending your art our way.

In response, students around the world created over 2 million cranes!

In response, students around the world created over 2 million cranes!

Activate donations that support other young people

Activate donations that support other young people

For every piece of art we receive, the Bezos Family Foundation donates to programs helping the people your students have learned about. Collective creativity adds up to real impact and helps raise awareness about important issues.

These cranes provided disaster relief after the Japanese tsunami and earthquake.

These cranes provided disaster relief after the Japanese tsunami and earthquake.

Introducing the 2022 World Needs Challenge

Sparking global change through art-ivism

It’s our biggest, broadest and most audacious Students Rebuild Challenge yet. Young people will create art to support some of the greatest needs in our global community today. Ready to help? Follow the steps below.

1. Register, set, go!

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First, register your team and then choose one of our five featured causes, including global hunger and clean oceans. Students learn more about an issue and find inspiration for their art. We provide free lessons and content, or you can use your own.

2. Art up!

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Students create an artfully illustrated poster, button or pennant that reflects why their cause matters and what their hopes are for change.

3. Support what the world needs now!

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Submit your art online. For each piece of art we receive, the Bezos Family Foundation will make a $5 donation—up to $2,500,000—to organizations addressing some of our world’s biggest needs.

"When you make something with your hands, it changes the way you feel, which changes the way you think, which changes the way you act."

— AUTHOR AND FORMER AID WORKER CARL WILKENS

Increasing global understanding through 6.1 million pieces of artwork and counting.

Insights from participants

Sarah

High school student, Long Island, NY

“Through Students Rebuild and different classes at our school, I've been able to expand my mind and know more about the world in general. Also, it's sparked interest in what I want to pursue in the rest of my life.”

Challenges: 2

Pieces of Art: 3

Dollars: 6

Ms. Smith

Kindergarten Teacher, Roanoke Virginia

“I love how Students Rebuild allows my students to connect not only students within their own community but to students in other countries across the globe. They loved that they could be a part of that."

Challenges: 4

Pieces of Art: 200

Dollars: 500

Principal James

Middle School Principal, Athens, OH

“I believe projects like this bridge the gap and make our global community that much smaller. You're motivated to think about other people and see what you can do to improve a situation not just at home but somewhere else."

Challenges: 2

Pieces of Art: 2,957

Dollars: 6,248

Gallery

The latest from Students Rebuild

Inspiring notes, photos, and updates from the Students Rebuild team and teachers and students around the world.

Learn more about World Needs Challenge partner CARE!

Learn more about World Needs Challenge partner No Kid Hungry.

Learn more about World Needs Challenge partner The King Center.

Meet World Needs Challenge partner International Rescue Committee!

Meet World Needs Challenge partner, Global Nomads Group!

This year, we’re inviting students from around the world to join us in a choose-your-own-adventure-style Challenge tackling five big issues to support some of the greatest needs in our global community.

We’re thrilled to report that together, we raised $1,000,000 to support large- and small-scale community change projects around the globe through the Changemaker Challenge. To learn more about what we accomplished, check out our impact report.

Register your team to join us for two unique awards shows, depending on your age group. Each show will be 20 to 30 minutes—perfect to view within a class period!

Double Your Impact for Changemaker Organizations This March! Every award created and submitted to the #ChangemakerChallenge will be matched with a $10 Bezos Family Foundation donation. Each submission also earns your team a $25 Donors Choose gift card. If teams share their submission on social media and tag Students Rebuild, their will get another $25 Donor Choose gift card!

We are excited to announce our two teams of the month, team DECO and team UNICEF as our October teams of the month! Team DECO is led by Marina Reilly at Millburn Middle School in Millburn, New Jersey and team UNICEF is led by Kacie Chong in Mountain House, California. Keep on the lookout for your team as we will be searching for another great team in the upcoming month!

This year we have 5 incredible new partners joining the Changemaker Challenge! All support youth and educators making a difference around the world. And we're pleased to welcome Global Nomads Group back to support learning and storytelling throughout the Challenge.

We are thrilled to see what else students create for this year! You can make a creative award out of materials found around the house. This one includes a prized lego figure!

Hot off the presses! Presenting the Students Rebuild Hunger Challenge Cookbook! It includes dozens of creative, silly, and tasty recipes submitted by students during the 2020 Hunger Challenge.

We are thrilled to announce that, because of your efforts, the Hunger Challenge ended with distributing over $2 million dollars to organizations addressing food insecurity and nutrition. You can learn more details—and some other fun facts about the collective action you took in the Challenge—through our newly published impact report! We encourage you to share it with your team.

The Hunger Challenge has officially ended! We are calculating all the impact students globally made together. Come back in late July 2020 to see the impact report!

Announcing new COVID-19 partners for the Hunger Challenge.

Mark your calendars for our third and final webcast of the year: Why Achieving Zero Hunger is Important Now More Important Than Ever! May 6, 2020, 1pm EST.

Learn more about the Spring Campaign running through June 5, 2020 which will count all submitted recipes for double at $6!

These recipes traveled 6,000 miles to us and arrived from the 10th grade Nativité Team of La Nativité Ensemble Scolaire in Aix-en-Provence, France!

We love recieving your special notes and inspiration! This one is from Tenacre School in Massachusetts where students and staff made 181 recipes!

We have just reached 2% of our goal! The Walden International School in Ontario, Canada just submitted some amazing 3 dimensional recipe art.

We are so excited to have youth-led teams taking the Hunger Challenge. Te'Lario Watkins is a 11-year old mushroom farmer who runs Tiger Mushroom Farms.

We are excited to announce a collaboration with internationally renowned, multi-Michelin starred chef Gordon Ramsay for the Hunger Challenge!

The Waimea Canyon Middle School in Waimea, Hawaii has created some amazing recipes and three dimensional food to match! Submitting art to the Challenge can be a journey in creativity. What ideas do you have?

Norwood High School was our first team to submit recipes just 2 weeks into the Hunger Challenge! Here is a great recipe for a a traditional Lebanese dinner!

Hunger Challenge partner HAPPY is a youth-founded and led organization that promotes youth empowerment through holistic health education.

The CHS WISE (Women In Science & Engineering) team submitted recipes that offer solutions to global problems like "A Recipe to End Mental Health Stigma"!

A cupcake shaped cupcake recipe is a one unique and inventive way to personalize the treat you love.

The Kohala Center is one of ten organizations supported through the Students Rebuild Hunger Challenge.

Check out this great article from Chicago’s local PBS about our Students Rebuild Ocean Challenge art exhibit at Shedd Aquarium.

Over 1,000 unique pieces of art were used in our Ocean Challenge art exhibit at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago!

From bubble wrap octopi to compact disc sea turtles, recycled bottle fish to eggcrate clams and painted paper clownfish - students around the world made awesome art!

St. Augustine School of Montserrat recently participated in the Ocean Challenge with support of our grantee partner Fish n’ Fins. Students turned art into action to promote the urgent need for ocean conservation from the front lines of climate change.

This month our friends at Global Nomads Group are producing a new video and teaching materials telling the story of the Shidhulai organization in Bangladesh, one of the 10 organizations benefiting from the Ocean Challenge.

Students Rebuild is excited to highlight youth advocates making a difference for our ocean and world. Meet Yanni Pappas, who is a member of the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots U.S. National Youth Leadership Council.

Inspired by teams around the world, our team is joining students to help clean up our local water ways! Here we are with the bags of trash that we retrieved from the Madison Park Arboretum in Seattle, WA.

Our ocean is teeming with life and we all rely on it for survival. Through the Ocean Challenge we are excited to explore and learn more through the work of The Nature Conservancy.

Inside the Facing Difference exhibit in the Figge Art Museum of Davenport, IA.

This year we are excited to be partnering with Ocean Collectiv to help identify and support amazing organizations impacting vulnerable coastal communities.

Portraits on display at the Figge Art Museum

Young people from the Bronx Science Key Club helped create ocean creatures ahead of our Challenge launch!

Afiya Williams and Arno Michaelis speaking at the opening event for the Facing Difference exhibit in the Figge Art Museum of Davenport, IA.

"Without the reefs, the beaches disappear. We're learning how to take care of our island. And the fish, too. Without a reef, no fish." - Joseph, 10, Alpha Junior School.

Youth playing in the Facing Difference exhibit at Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA.

This photo was taken in Grenada during Reef Week. Through the Ocean Challenge, participants will be supporting similar work and projects in the Dominican Republic and The Bahamas.

Students Rebuild team member Valerie with Bezos Scholar Pablo Haake!

We're so excited to see Ocean Challenge art already coming in! Thank you Uruguayan American School!

Drawing self-portraits at the Figge Art Museum

Thank you Oklahoma Centennial High School for creating these sea creatures for the Ocean Challenge!

Arno Michaelis, Afiya Williams of Global Nomads Group, Students Rebuild team member Leonetta, and students from Davenport Central HS at the Figge Art Museum exhibit launch.

We're so excited to see Ocean Challenge art already coming in! Thank you Uruguayan American School!

Portraits on display at the Figge Art Museum.

Pictures with portraits! At the Facing Difference exhibit in the Figge Art Museum of Davenport, IA.

Drawing self-portraits at the Facing Difference exhibit in the Figge Art Museum of Davenport, IA.