DESIGN OUR FUTURE 2024-2025 CHALLENGE RULES

By entering the Design Our Future, Inc. (“Design Our Future”) U.S. High School 2024-2025 Challenge, you (“you”) agree to be bound to the following rules and conditions (the “Rules”):

Eligibility

The Design Our Future U.S. High School 2024-2025 Challenge (“Challenge”) is a challenge competition open to any current high school (grades 9–12) student or homeschool student who has completed coursework through grade 8 and is working toward a high school degree. At the time of entry, the student must be at least 13 years of age but no older than 19 years of age, and residing in the 50 United States or the District of Columbia.

You may not enter if you are a member of the immediate family or household of a:

  • Director, officer, employee, intern consultant, or volunteer of or for Design Our Future; or
  • Judge of the Challenge.

Entry

You can make your Entry to the Challenge by following the instructions provided on the 2024-2025 Challenge and Entry pages.

You may enter as an individual or as a team of up to five students. You may only enter once. If you enter as a team, you may not also submit an entry as an individual. Only submit a design that is your own original creation, or if entering as a team, the original creation of your team. Each participant is solely responsible for their individual entry or their team’s entry and the consequences of making that entry.

Design Our Future reserves the right to disqualify any entry if it determines that it contains design marks, logos, or writing identifying the participant(s), or if the participant(s) sought to communicate with any member of the judges of the Challenge of Design Our Future except as is provided on the Design Our Future website for the Challenge, including the process for asking questions not answered by the Entry requirements, Rules, and FAQ.

Participants are solely responsible for all costs associated with the preparation of an entry.

You must provide a Parent or Legal Guardian Consent Form signed by your parent or legal guardian. If submitting a team entry, each participant must provide a Parent or Legal Guardian Consent Form signed by a parent or legal guardian. You or any team member not submitting a Parent or Legal Guardian Consent Form is grounds for disqualification of your submission.

Entries received after 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, April 18, 2025 will be considered late entries, and late entries will be disqualified from the Challenge.

Judging

The Design Our Future team and judges for the Design Our Future U.S. High School 2024-2025 Challenge shall review all submissions using the 2024-2025 Challenge Entry requirements and the Evaluation Criteria in order to evaluate and rank the submissions to determine first-place, second-place, and third-place winners and honorable mentions for each topic. In the unlikely event that Design Our Future or the judges determine that no eligible submissions meet the Entry requirements or satisfy the evaluation criteria, the Challenge will be canceled.

Winners and Honorable Mention Notification and Announcement

For each topic, there will be first, second, and third-place awards with cash prizes and honorable mention recipients. For each of the 2024-2025 Challenge topics, each individual who is a first-place winner or is part of a first-place team will receive $600 individually. For each topic, each individual who is a second-place winner or is part of a second-place team for each topic will receive $400 individually. Also, for each topic, each individual who is a third-place winner or is part of a third-place team for each topic will receive $200 individually. So, if you are part of a five-person team, you will each receive the same prize as an individual winner.  Since teamwork is important in solving real problems, we want to create the same incentive to work as a five-person team (which could win up to $3,000 as a five-person team, or $600 each) as working as a smaller team or an individual.

Submissions deemed to be competitive for the top three places in each topic, but that do not rank in the top three will be deemed “honorable mention” recipients.

The names, submission titles, a summary, and photo of each submission of all prize winners and all honorable mention recipients will be displayed on the Design Our Future website.

Design Our Future will notify all winners and honorable mentions via the e-mail address or telephone number provided at the time of entry. Winners and honorable mentions shall refrain from publicly discussing their selection until after Design Our Future has made the official public announcement on its website (anticipated to be on or before May 30, 2025). Those individuals or teams with submissions not selected as prize winners or honorable mentions will not be notified. If the prize winners do not respond to the notification within two business days, another prize winner may be chosen in their place. Failure to respond within two business days means the prize winner forfeits their position.

Prize winners and honorable mention recipients also must provide an affidavit of eligibility and confirming their desire to receive the monetary prize (or to decline the cash prize and, instead, request a donation to their school of the prize monies.

Prizes and Taxes

The prizes are listed at the 2024-2025 Challenge page. No substitutions will be allowed. The winner is responsible for all taxes on awards and prizes, if any.

Ownership and Permissions

Participants retain the rights to their entry or, in the case of a team entry, their contributions to their team’s entry, An entry may be referred to as the “Submissions”.

All participants that make Submissions through the Challenge, including you, grant Design Our Future and those authorized by Design Our Future, permission to copy, publish, distribute, publicly display, and otherwise use the Submissions, in whole or in part for any educational or promotional purposes, in any media now known or later developed, without compensation to the participant. This includes but is not limited to educational programs, exhibitions, fundraising, promotions (including on social media), research, and publications. This permission is irrevocable and perpetual. This permission does not include commercial uses of any Submissions.

Design Our Future may photograph, video, and otherwise document participation in any of the Challenge activities, and to use any such documentation (which may include your likeness, statements, name, or actions) for any educational or promotional purposes, in any media now known or later developed, without compensation to you.

Retention of Entries or Designs

Design Our Future is under no obligation to use or retain any entries or Submissions and likely will not retain digital or physical copies of entries after the competition concludes (nonetheless an entry might be depicted on a website or in some other format consistent with the permissions granted by each participant). Should Design Our Future decide to retain your Submissions, it will do so in accordance with its applicable document retention policies.

IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL PARTICIPATION RULES AND CONDITIONS

All Design Our Future decisions are final and binding.

Participants represent and warrant that their Entry submissions shall: comply with these rules, contain only the participant’s (or in the case of team entries, the participant’s team’s) own original material, be lawful, true, and accurate, not violate the rights of any third party, and contain no harmful links (e.g. viruses) or otherwise damaging materials.

Do not submit anything that is inappropriate, is inaccurate, could be construed as offensive, is off-topic, or contains personal attacks or expletives.

Design Our Future reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any participant whose entry or conduct appears in any way to: inhibit the enjoyment of others; tamper with the Challenge; violate these Rules; infringe on the rights of third parties; or act in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner.

Disclaimers

Design Our Future is not responsible for incomplete or misdirected Submissions, technical or network malfunctions or failures, or causes beyond its control.

Nothing in these Rules or the Challenge commits Design Our Future to enter into a contract or award with any participant or for any services related to this Challenge.

Design Our Future reserves the right to cancel the Challenge or modify these rules at any time for any reason at its discretion. As an example, in the event of a dispute with you or any team members with whom you make a Submissions, Design Our Future reserves the right to award or not award the prizes in its sole discretion.

Release

All participants, including you, agree to hold harmless Design Our Future and its board directors, officers, agents, employees, consultants, interns, volunteers, judges, and their affiliated organizations, from any and all claims, actions, and demands of any kind arising out of participation in the Challenge and any acceptance or usage of the awards and prizes, or the Design Our Future’s use of the Submissions or their name and likeness as provided herein

Design Our Future and its board directors, officers, agents, employees, consultants, interns, volunteers, judges, and their affiliated organizations, are not liable for any costs, damages, injuries, or other claims incurred as a result of anyone’s participation in the Challenge or acceptance and usage of the awards and prizes.

Privacy

All participants waive any privacy expectations they may have with regard to their Entry submissions. Participants must not submit any content or information that they do not want to be made public. Be aware that if your Entry is selected:

  • As a prize winner or honorable mention recipient, your name, age, grade, school, and city and state where you live may be displayed on the Design Our Future website and promotional materials, but street addresses, emails, and phone numbers will not be posted; and
  • If your content is selected by Design Our Future for posting, website visitors may share your content via social media websites such as TikTok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms. These sites operate independently of Design Our Future and have their own privacy policies. In addition, comments with which you disagree may become associated with the content you submit.