Matthew Buxton’s “Universal Education and How it Gives Everyone a Fair Chance” won an honorable mention in the World of 7 Billion student video contest.
He 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.”
A combination of infographic imagery and text provides the message in Matthew’s animated film while catchy music plays in the background. Foundational information is laid out for the viewer right away – of the 650 million school-age children, over 58 million of them do not attend school and as population increases, the number of children out of school is expected to reach 73 million. He discusses some reasons kids are out of school, including poverty, geographic location, and fear, and does an excellent job matching up solutions to these individual issues. Donations to build schools and volunteering can help overcome poverty as a barrier. Money towards providing transportation can ease the burden of distance. And self-defense classes or all-girls schools could help eliminate the fear of harm.
Matthew is a freshman at The Waterford School in Sandy, UT where his attendance was part of what inspired him to create a video. He recognizes how fortunate he is to be enrolled in a school with quality teachers and a rigorous curriculum and that many of his peers globally, do not have the same opportunity for quality schooling. As a first time filmmaker, it was editing his video’s content that was the most difficult part of the creation process. He has to continually revise and rework the video script until it covered everything he wanted to say but stayed within the one minute limit.
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 – “Would You Make that Difference?” by Niquelle Lewis
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.
