Vermonters always assume nothing important happens here, and a lot of the time, they’re right. But recently, three South Burlington students have proven them wrong.

Riya Patel, Neel Desai, and Ronak Bhagat competed in a video contest presented to the nation by President Obama during a Sept. 8 speech. They have been ranked in the top 10, beating out more than 600 contestants from across the nation.

“President Obama gave an educational address to all the students in the United States, so we all tuned into the address,” said Jay Hoffman, their technology education teacher.

“What some people maybe didn’t know was following that address came a video challenge. Create a video no longer than two minutes that speaks to the importance of education.”

The top three finalists in the contest, called “I Am What I Learn,” will win $1,000. You can vote for the winners at www.ed.gov/iamwhatilearn/index.html.

Patel and Desai, who are both freshmen at South Burlington High School, and Bhagat, an eighth grader at F.H. Tuttle Middle School, created, produced and directed the film.

The film uses the word “education” as an acronym, and places a fact or important part of education with each letter. They use a cast of all different students to talk about each letter.

“All three of us had different ideas to make into one, and we came up with the idea to make an acronym. So we cut all our ideas down to fit into EDUCATION,” Patel said.

They began working on the project in September, and worked around the clock to get it finished.

“The freshmen and the eighth grader come in and met at 7 a.m. every day, and they have been since September, sometimes earlier,” Hoffman said. “Their shoots would take place in the early morning. They would work in post production at home.”

Making this film was tough on the students’ schedules, but taught them valuable lessons.

“It teaches us time management. I have to make sure to get my work done right after school so I can get enough sleep at night,” Patel said.

Despite how tiring it may have been, the students found a hobby in their filmmaking, and it became something they really learned to love, they said.

“After being part of this, I’ve become more involved with media,” Bhagat said.

“We learned a lot of new stuff, and video editing has become one of my favorite hobbies,” Patel said.

The students learned a lot – just what Hoffman was hoping for when the project began.

“I realized that kids need to be media-smart,” he said. “Kids need to have skills that will transfer into a real life skill.”

Watch the video at http://fireflymag.com/videos/12-02-2009/i-am-what-i-learn . Voting December 4^th, so check it out, and be sure to vote.

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