Niquelle Lewis’s “Would You Make That Difference?” won an honorable mention in the World of 7 Billion student video contest. She chose to connect population to the global challenge: “Worldwide, one in ten primary school age children and one in three secondary age children are not enrolled in school.”
Done with paper cuts with stop-motion animation, Niquelle gets her message across through both images on the screen and voice-over narration, a combination that is both entertaining to watch and an efficient use of time. After an explanation of the poverty cycle, she implores that “whether you know it or not, this issue [access to education] effects everyone” and offers a unique solution that would similarly involve “everyone.” Niquelle asserts that a payback program where all secondary school graduates put money back into the education system for future students would cover the cost of universal education. She shares the math and computes that it would take “a mere $65 per graduate” to cover the necessary $9.1 billion. A lot of people doing a little can make a big difference.
A senior at the Compass Academy in Idaho Falls, ID, Niquelle’s AP Human Geography teacher assigned the video contest in class. She didn’t know much about the population-education link before the project and found it interesting to research the direct impacts education have on both individuals and societies. And while it was difficult to create a script that covered so much information in a short amount of time, it was the editing process with the paper cut-outs that was the most challenging part of the process.
Want to see the other top videos on this topic?
First Place – “What Would You Sacrifice for an Education?” by Andrew Schwenn
Second Place – “Stop the Cycle” by Hailey Hess
Honorable Mention – “Universal Education and How it Gives Everyone a Fair Chance” by Matthew Buxton
Want to participate in a future contest?
Interested in staying informed about next year’s contest? Visit the contest website today and download our free lesson plan to guide you.
