A team of three University students won a $4000 scholarship for their suicide prevention videos.
Courtney Hutton, senior, Marisa Vallejo and Richard Sanders, all juniors and film production majors, won the contest, which included three other teams.
“It feels great,” Vallejo said. “Using our skills as film majors to do something that matters, something worthwhile.”
Four teams of students participated in the contest. Each group had to make three videos, and each video had to have a certain message come across to a particular audience. The first video was one for the general student population, the second was to the LGBT students and the third was to veterans.
The winning team met each other during their freshman year through the Art’s Village and have been friends ever since. When they entered the contest, the students started brainstorming right away.
“We decided to split up and each do one video,” Hutton said. “I took the LGBT video, Marisa did the veterans and Richard wanted the general student video.”
Unfortunately, Sanders was unable to be at the video contest to accept his award. However, the three students have been working together to create the videos for about two months.
“This contest meant a lot to us,” Hutton said. “We all have at least one close friend who has thought about or tried to commit suicide, and we wanted to help in a way we knew how.”
They weren’t the only team that entered the contest to help others. Another team that entered included sophomore Ben Abbott and freshman Chris King.
“The issue doesn’t get addressed enough,” Abbott said. “We both have a passion in suicide prevention because we both have connections to the issue.”
King agreed with Abbott about wanting to bring the issue out to the public’s attention.
“Suicide is something that is kept quiet and hidden,” King said. “We wanted to bring it out into the open.”
Even though Hutton, Vallejo and Sanders won the contest, they cared more about bringing the issue into the open like King and Abbott.
“We both have gone through trying to find scholarships, filling out essays and paperwork,” Vallejo said. “But this one was worth so much more than the dollar amount won. We will make a difference in someone’s life.”
