Secaucus, N.J. -Val Verde High School from Perris, Calif.,
has defended its position to become the winner in the 22
nd
annual
Panasonic Kid Witness News video competition, according to Panasonic.
Val Verde competed against more than 50 schools across the
country to take home the 2012 U.S. Best Video of the Year award. The school was
also one of the top four winning teams who received a KWN New Vision Award. Val
Verde’s video will represent the US in the Panasonic Global Kid Witness News
Awards competition against finalists representing 31 countries from around the
world.
To receive the award, Val Verde High School’s student team
traveled this week to New Jersey to visit the headquarters of Panasonic
Corporation of North America and participate in the company’s New Vision Awards
ceremony along with fellow finalists Maui High School (Kahului, Hawaii), Vista
Academy High School (Denver) and Vista Academy of Visual and Performing Arts
(Vista, Calif.). Each of the schools received a New Vision Award for their creative
videos on environmental issues, including topics of recycling, toxic landfills,
beach cleaning and the importance of ecosystems.
Finalists in the U.S. national competition receive a
Panasonic Kid Witness News New Vision Award trophy, a banner to prominently
hang in their school and a “Winners’ Weekend.” which includes an all-expense-paid
trip to the New York City Metro area for the awards ceremony program and a day
seeing the sights in New York. The U.S. Best Video of the Year award winner
also receives a suite of Panasonic products.
The award winners are selected by an independent panel of
professionals comprised of educators, broadcasters, journalists, entertainers
and industry leaders, who volunteer their time and expertise. Videos submitted
for competition were initially reviewed by students and faculty from the Bronx
Community College Film Division (Bronx, N.Y.) with the top videos submitted for
a final round of judging by the independent panel.
Panasonic Kid Witness News is a hands-on video education
program created to encourage students to develop cognitive, communication and
organizational skills. The program began in 1989 with one school in New
Jersey and has since grown to include participants from 76 schools throughout
the United States and 718 schools from 31 countries worldwide.
Panasonic provides participating schools with a complete
digital video studio and suggested guidelines to augment the school’s
curriculum to encourage the children to express how they view the world around
them. Under supervision, the students create, produce, direct and edit video
shorts throughout the school year, and are asked to create one video based on
an annual theme for submission in the yearly Panasonic competition. The
schools were provided with a Panasonic professional HD video camera so their
work could be produced in HD quality.
For more information on the Panasonic Kid Witness News
program, visit
.
