A team of mass communication students from Republic Polytechnic’s Centre for Enterprise and Communication edged out eight other teams to clinch the top prize in a recent South East Asian (SEA) Games video contest.
The team, comprising second-year students Natalie Ann Fernandez, Muhammad Yusri Jumari and Muhammad Iskandar Rossali, was the smallest in the competition. Most teams who took part had an average of five members.
“Honestly, I never expected our work to win first or have any placing at all, especially after watching all the other competition submissions,” said Yusri, 20.
Organised by Singtel, the video competition was open to all secondary and tertiary students. Teams had to create a video to cheer for an everyday Singaporean who was an inspiration to them.
The CEC team’s entry was titled “Aspire to Inspire” and told the story of Mr Abdul Alim Mohamed Hanifah, a Singaporean who became the first Asian amputee to complete a triathlon. Mr Alim lost his right leg in a traffic accident but overcame the disability and depression to participate in endurance sports.
The video competition was the first time the members were working together as a team and they assumed new roles.
Natalie, 18, said: “It was my first time as a producer and it was a bit of a struggle to make sure everything was running well. From the start, there was already a lot of work to do.”
To meet the deadline, the team sacrificed their weekends to complete the video. They also squeezed in time before and after school to work on the project.
For their effort, the three students received a $5,000 cash prize and five pairs of SEA Games Opening Ceremony tickets.
Inspired by Mr Alim, the team decided to pay it forward. They donated $3,000 of their prize money to the RP Needy Student Fund to help students from low income families afford basic expenses for school and tide over financial difficulties.
Iskandar, who was cameraman and editor for the video, said: “As we make the school proud of our achievement, we are also grateful that we managed to help those that are in need the most and our efforts didn’t go to waste.”
