Barton Community College recently challenged its students and potential students to craft videos that answer the question, “What Drives You?” The first annual video contest ended in late 2012 with two winners selected.
Freshman Kevin Manase and sophomore David Berry took first and second place, respectively.
Manase, who received an iPad as his prize, also entered his video into a statewide contest sponsored by the Kansas Association of Community College Trustees and took second place, which earned him a Fender guitar.
“It was great to be able to participate in the contests; It was a wonderful opportunity,” said Manase, who is working toward a career in computer engineering. “It was fun making the video and promoting Barton.”
As a traditional student, Manase is attending Barton to knock out his general education requirements, and was 100 percent honest about choosing Barton in his video; “If you’re looking for a college that has a nice program and isn’t expensive, and has small classes ... come to Barton. It will be the right move for you!”
Berry, who hopes to pursue a career in music and theatre, took slightly more creative license and did a monologue of himself on Barton’s stage with plenty of artistic flare and creative video editing thrown in the mix. His second place landed him an iPad Mini.
In his video, Berry answers the self-posed question “Why Barton?” with poetic lines like “boasting in my difference” and “sons and daughters become brighter suns for new days” and “aspire to be inspired.”
“Life was my inspiration,” he explained. “It is about stuff I go through and adversity ... it’s about study, school, track, everything – my experience from different places, my ideas and my perspective on life.”
Julie Munden, video and multimedia coordinator at Barton, served as a mentor for both Berry and Manase.
“I’m really proud of my Barton student videographer employees,” she said. “They worked hard on their videos despite some major computer glitches and both showcased a good creative product in the end. Kevin came to the position with a lot of experience in editing and a very creative eye for shooting video. He’s highly intelligent, very dependable, and a good problem solver. He did a great job of telling his own personal story as a student at Barton. I really saw his personality come out in the video and he had a fun time making it.”
Munden had similar compliments to attribute to Berry’s work.
“David had to learn on the fly this semester. He started from ground zero in the edit room and really grew as a student employee,” she said. “He had a lot on his plate this semester with track, academics, being student senate president, a student employee and serving in the Navy reserves once a month.”
Both videos are viewable on Youtube at the following locations:
Kevin Manase: http://youtu.be/o5rj8WEMns4
David Berry: http://youtu.be/wUP1e7zV6lk