2017 Arizona Video Contest Winners Announced
Students from Desert View High School and Palo Verde Magnet High School in Tucson dominated the third annual video contest sponsored by the Population Media Center’s Arizona Chapter.
The “One Planet, Many People” video contest, open to high school students throughout Arizona, featured cash prizes for creating a short video, under two minutes, exploring how a rapidly growing human population might impact the world, Arizona, or the student’s future quality of life.
“This year, over 500 students from multiple high schools participated in the contest, producing more than 60 video entries. The contest provides a great project-based learning opportunity for students to develop their research and creative skills while also learning about issues that are critical to their long-term quality of life,” said Keith Kaback, M.D., Executive Director of Population Media Center’s Arizona Chapter.
Pedro Marquez and Marcus Maley from Desert View High School won first place and $500 for their video “Overpopulation” in the freshmen category. Their video combined powerful images with information about how population size intersects with natural resource use, such as deforestation, food, and water.
Brianna Yanez from Palo Verde Magnet High School won first place and $500 for her video “Our World As It Is” in the upper class category. Her video reveals some telling truths, exploring such issues as water consumption and waste.
In the freshmen category, Joshua Marcotte and Genesis Bueno’s “Negative Effects of Overpopulation” and Sahaira Fragozo and Gaby Leyva’s “Negative Effects of Overpopulation on Rainforest” both tied for second place with both films winning $300. Stephanie Reyes and Mayrin Garcia’s “Effects of Society” won third place and $200. All of these submissions came from Desert View High School, earning their science department $500 for the school department with the best participation. Nuris Finkenthal, chair of the department, commented that the contest gave students the opportunity to reflect on “carrying capacity and the consequences of population growth worldwide.”
The upper class portion of the contest saw Alexandra Edwards from Sandra Day O’Connor High School in Phoenix win second place and $300 with her video “Preserving Our Future.” Dezirae Chavez and Esmeralda Vielma from Desert View High School won third place and $200 with their video “Lack of Food Due to Overpopulation.”
There were also 15 honorable mentions, eight freshmen and seven upper classmen, winning $100 each.
Population Media Center is an international nonprofit that uses media to educate citizens about family and reproductive health, gender equity, and the benefits of small families for the environment. Population Media Center programs have appeared in more than 50 countries. The Arizona chapter promotes understanding and discussion of the global impact of population growth and the local impact on Arizona’s citizens and environment.
ABOUT POPULATION MEDIA CENTER (PMC):
Population Media Center is a nonprofit leader in entertainment-education, dedicated to women’s rights and empowerment, population stabilization, and the environment. For the past two decades, PMC’s entertainment programming has promoted social and cultural change and has helped 500 million people in more than 50 countries.