We’re excited to announce the Student Data Scrollytelling Contest, a new competition this fall showcasing innovative storytelling with data. Scrollytelling lets readers uncover a narrative as they scroll—layering visuals, zooming into maps, animating graphics, and pairing text with media to create an engaging experience. Check out some of the organizers’ favorites:
- Scientific Proof that Americans are Completely Addicted to Trucks
- The Coming California Megastorm
- The Playbook Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism
- 24 Hours in an Invisible Epidemic
- America’s Mental Health Crisis, Mapped
- The Historical Cost of Light
Students may submit projects from coursework, independent research, or personal explorations. We’re looking for creativity, clarity, and impact—whether the goal is to inform, persuade, or inspire.
Spring 2026 Winners
The winner of the Master's/PhD level of the Spring 2026 Data Scrollytelling competition is Duy Nguyen from Seattle University for the story:
The winner of the undergraduate level of the Spring 2026 Data Scrollytelling competition is Isabel Prado-Tucker from Dartmouth College for the story:
Fall 2025 Winners
The winner of the Master’s/PhD level of the Fall 2025 Data Scrollytelling competition is Kriti Sharma from the University of Melbourne for the story:
The winner of the undergraduate level of the Fall 2025 Data Scrollytelling competition is Dylan Nguyen from the University of Washington for the story:
About Data Scrollytelling
Who may participate?
- The competition is open to any student globally.
- Students may work individually or in groups (max group size of 5). All participants must be students at the time they made their scrollytelling story but may have recently graduated.
- The scrollytelling story must have been completed during 2025 or 2026.
- Each student can be the corresponding author or a co-author of only one project submitted for this competition.
The winning projects will be featured on the CAUSE web site, and cash prizes of up to $250 will be awarded to winning projects!
Getting Started with Data Scrollytelling
Students are welcome to use any tool to author their document. We list a few options below.
Closeread (free): Closeread allows you to author scrollytelling documents in a plain text format that can include code (R, Python, Shiny, or Javascript). It is an extension of Quarto and will be familiar to students accustomed to authoring computational notebooks.
StoryMaps: StoryMaps is a code-free way to create scrollytelling, web-based stories that integrate with ArcGIS. Other media and content can be embedded as well. Ask your institution if you have institutional access.
Judging:
Each project will be judged by multiple judges. The judges have expertise in communicating with data but do not necessarily have expertise in the applied domain of your paper. Therefore, you should construct a story that is understandable to a reader with little knowledge of any applied domains that relate to your story.
Some general characteristics that the judges may look for include:
- Compelling narrative
- Sound interpretation of data
- Effective use of scrollytelling
- Visual polish