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Date: 11/16/2022
AGAWAM – Destiny Ortiz is not a big sports fan and doesn’t participate in any athletics at Agawam High School (AHS). That didn’t stop her from winning a statewide sportsmanship award this month.
The 15-year-old freshman received a $200 prize from the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) as the runner-up in its 2022 multimedia contest. Ortiz produced a 60-second public service announcement video based on the contest theme, “How do courageous leaders demonstrate sportsmanship?”
Ortiz received her prize when she and her family were honored guests at the 28th annual MIAA Sportsmanship Summit at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough on Nov. 10. She was not only competing against other students in the state who entered the contest, but also her classmates.
A student in Ryan Brown’s TV Production & Broadcast Journalism class – a “career pathway” elective course – she and her classmates were assigned to make a video for the contest as part of a lesson on video editing.
“I’m a little shocked that I even won the runner-up award. I didn’t think I would win any award for my first video,” she said. “I don’t remember how I came up with the idea, but when I found a phrase I really liked, I decided to make like a story out of it,” she explained.
“The script was very easy for me – I love writing. It’s probably one of my favorite hobbies. Whenever I’m at home, I enjoy writing poems and short stories,” Ortiz added.
It took her about an hour to turn her idea into a script that became the voiceover she recorded for the video.
In the video’s audio, Destiny asks how to define sportsmanship. She then suggests that it is the “fair and generous behavior and treatment of others, especially in sports.”
She goes on to explain that sportsmanship is important because it allows a person to have respect for others and self-control, allowing them to appear more mature and hold more integrity.
“It is easy for a person to get caught up in game, yet no matter how much you like to, you can’t always win. This is a reason to practice sportsmanship, so a person can accept a loss. It may be difficult to look at your opponent, however, their effort should be recognized and appreciated,” explained Ortiz in the video’s voiceover.
She used special software called WeVideo on her school Chromebook to create and edit the video, as well as record the voiceover. The cloud-based, nonlinear editing app gave her access to a vast array of stock video footage, photos, music, special effects sound, green-screen effects and motion titles.
“WeVideo stock footage allows students to visualize their script without the burden of filming all the content. That would be impossible in a high school classroom – and obviously we would be severely restricted in the video we could film,” explained Brown.
His class had just eight days to go from idea to script to a finished video. Ortiz, however, did it in only four days, working on her video for a few hours each day to finalize it.
“Destiny enjoys writing and this is a powerful skill in the development of any creative project,” said Brown. He called her an “attentive student” who follows the “workflow” that he teaches young producers as they journey from concept to script to acquisition of media and camera production to editing.
Brown added that he was impressed with Destiny’s video – especially from someone in her first year of high school who had never produced a video before.
“Destiny had written one prior script regarding First Amendment freedom of speech rights for our ‘AHS Insider’ magazine TV show, but she had never edited a video. We were beginning to edit our first videos when the principal asked me to consider the contest. I’m proud that in one month of lessons, Destiny was prepared.”
Ortiz’ success in producing her first video in the elective course hasn’t persuaded her to consider a career in broadcasting or to become a TV journalist.
“It’s a fun class if you enjoy editing videos and writing factual things,” she said, “but I like writing make-believe stuff.”
Her award, however, will make Ortiz the star of a reality TV show produced by her classmates. She will not only will be gathering video and photographs at her awards event to be used in the show, but she also will be interviewed for “AHS 20 Questions.” The TV show features video interviews of students and staff and is posted to the AHS website and web broadcast to staff and students.
As a teacher, Brown said it’s a pleasure when a student like Ortiz enjoys learning the curriculum.
“Awards mean a lot, but it’s Destiny’s kind rapport and daily engagement in the assignments that matters most to me. Destiny’s award is well-merited and speaks to her dedication each day in class.”