San Francisco, New York, Washington, DC (PRWEB) June 11, 2012

Rocket21, the only social networking platform designed to safely connect kids and teens with professionals and experts representing industries, professions, passions, and movements that span the glob], joined with National Geographic Channels to announce that Kirkwood, Missouri 8th grader Trevor Currie has been named the Grand Prize Winner in Rocket21s latest Dream Experience contest.

The national youth photography contest titled Dream Big in Your Backyard was presented by Rocket21 in celebration of the new National Geographic Channel (NGC) Miniseries Event Untamed Americas. The contest invited Rocket21 members to showcase the beauty that is just outside their doors in their own backyards across the continent.

NGC spent more than two years in the field, traveling thousands of miles from Alaska to Patagonia, to capture the extreme wildlife of the continent for Untamed Americas a new four-hour, high-definition miniseries, narrated by Academy Award-nominated actor, Josh Brolin. The full series airs Monday night, June 11th from 7-11PM Eastern Time on National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD and Nat Geo MUNDO.

Curries winning photo, featuring a neighbors golden retriever, captured the judges attention for Curries intimate, unexpected take on a familiar subject. Commenting on his selection, Currie noted, Rocket21 is awesome! My dream is to photograph the world for National Geographic and Rocket21 has given me the chance to meet people doing exactly what I will do someday.

Currie and his family attended the red-carpet world premiere in Washington, D.C., and had the opportunity for one-on-one discussion with naturalists, filmmakers, and others from the miniseries team at an after-party at The National Zoo.

The breadth and depth of the photographs and stories that kids submitted to our contest are inspiring, noted Chris Albert, Senior Vice-President, Communications Worldwide & Talent Relations, National Geographic Channels. Rocket21 members did a fantastic job of demonstrating their photography skills and creativity, while reinforcing that they really do see the physical beauty that truly is right in our backyards. Congratulations to Trevor and the other Rocket21 competitors.

About Untamed Americas:

Untamed Americas is produced by National Geographic Television for National Geographic Channels. For National Geographic Television, series producer is Karen Bass, producers are James Byrne and Andrew Mitchell, senior producer is Anne Tarrant and executive producer is Jonathan Halperin. For National Geographic Channels, executive producer is Ashley Hoppin, and executive vice president of programming is Michael Cascio. Education materials are available at natgeoed.org/untamedamericas. For more information on the series, visit natgeotv.com/untamedamericas.

About Rocket21:

Rocket21 is the only social networking platform designed to safely connect kids and teens with professionals and experts representing industries, professions, passions, and movements that span the globe. Rocket21 provides unprecedented access to world-class experts and organizations while protecting them with a combination of state-of-the-art, real-time filtering and human moderation, extensive safety and security precautions, and a specialized infrastructure designed to keep kids safe.

Like Rocket21 on Facebook and follow @Rocket21 on Twitter. For more information contact Media Relations at media(at)rocket21(dot)com.

About National Geographic Channels:

Based at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C., the National Geographic Channels US are a joint venture between National Geographic and Fox Cable Networks. The Channels contribute to the National Geographic Societys commitment to exploration, conservation and education with smart, innovative programming and profits that directly support its mission. Launched in January 2001, National Geographic Channel (NGC) celebrated its fifth anniversary with the debut of NGC HD. In 2010, the wildlife and natural history cable channel Nat Geo WILD was launched, and in 2011, the Spanish-language network Nat Geo Mundo was unveiled. The Channels have carriage with all of the nations major cable, telco and satellite television providers, with NGC currently available in over 79 million U.S. homes. Globally, National Geographic Channels International is available in more than 380 million homes in 163 countries and 37 languages. For more information, visit http://www.natgeotv.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Rocket21

Jodell Seagrave, Rocket21, 650-839-1105, jodell(at)rocket21(dot)com

National Geographic Channels

Chris Albert, National Geographic Channel, 202-912-6526, CAlbert(at)natgeotv(dot)com

Kristin Montalbano, Digital Publicist, 703-678-3678, kmontalbano(at)gmail(dot)com