2018 High School Winners

Vivan Dai is an eleventh grader at Martingrove Collegiate Institute in Toronto, Ontario. She is self-studying to take the AP Human Geography exam this spring and was learning about population changes in her biology class, so when she came across the contest online, she saw it was a perfect opportunity to combine so many areas she’d studied. Vivian first considered the topic of pollution but was worried her video might simply repeat information people already knew. She ultimately focused on agriculture and hunger because “not a lot of people know about the problems with feeding everyone and relate it to the problems with soil.”

Her first step was to make a hand-drawn storyboard outlining the main pieces she hoped to include in the film. And Vivian knew she wanted to portray the data in a way that really stood out to the viewer. As she stated, “sometimes when you hear numbers, it’s in one ear out the other and I wanted to find strong visuals to draw the viewer in.” Vivian has been learning more about drawing digitally and decided to put that new skill to use by creating each frame as a digital image platform and then combining them all with video making software. Her advice for future contest participants is to find something you’ve always been interested in and want to learn more about. The contest was perfect for her in this regard as she shared that, “while making the video, not only did I get to make it on something I was interested in but I learned so much about the topic itself. It’s something that really mattered to me both for exams but also something I really care about.”

Vivian loves music, often writing and performing songs with friends. She also plays two instruments – the viola and the piano. Vivian is a member of her school’s business club, robotics club, and also plays badminton. She’ll probably save her prize money to use while at university, where she’s hoping to go into something related to science or engineering.