Winners of First New Jersey High School Media Challenge Announced
High School Students Tell New Jersey Story in 15 Seconds
Posted in: School of Communication and Media News
The School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University presented awards last week to the three winners of its first annual New Jersey High School Media Challenge. Eileen Conde of Hillside High School took the Lauren D. Fraser top prize of $500 for her “Garden State” video.
Recent Rutherford High School graduate Chloe Keifer was the recipient of the $250 Words & Music award for “Weird NJ,” and Lauren Hardt, also from Rutherford, received the $125 Public Relations Student Society of America award for “Jersey Shore Vacation.” The awards were presented in the school’s new Morehead Hall facility.
The 2014 media challenge invited high school students from around the state to create a 15 second video that contained a New Jersey theme. They would then upload their videos to YouTube for judging. A group of faculty and staff at the school, plus fiction writer Lauren D. Fraser and Words and Music President and Cofounder, Alan Grant also served as judges.
Instagram’s introduction of the 15-second video in June of 2013 was so successful that CNN partnered with Twitter in April of this year to create a 15 second video series. At the same time, MSNBC began producing 15 second video stories to be part of a series called “15 Seconds to Truth.”
The School of Communication and Media at Montclair State saw an opportunity to give New Jersey high school students a chance to test their bite-sized storytelling skills. The theme of this year’s contest was “Tell a New Jersey Story in 15 Seconds.” Statewide high schoolers could use any inspiration from around the state. The contest kicked off in the spring, and students were allowed to submit their videos through the end of June.
Lauren D. Fraser is a Sparta, New Jersey based author whose novel “Trinity” was released in 2012. A sequel is set for a spring 2015 release. Words & Music produces and delivers high definition video for website and other broadcast applications, radio and television commercials, still photography, as well as custom music soundtracks, jingles and other voice-over related marketing projects. Company president Alan Grant is a 2012 inductee into the New Jersey Advertising Hall of Fame.