Congratulations, Rebekah!

San Andreas student, Rebekah Austin, has been chosen as one of four international winners in a video contest, using work in two of her classes here at San Andreas as the theme for her video, “Souls of Sol.”

First came the project in October 2009, called Souls of Sol (S.O.S.), that focused on ending global poverty through microloans, a concept that advocates funding to remote communities to enable the creation of sustainable business ventures.   In Bettina Mow's class, she read "Creating a World Without Poverty," by Muhammad Yunus, and in Peter Parish's ceramics class, she and other students made and sold Christmas gifts and ornaments to help raise several hundred dollars for their microloan to a Cambodian village.  Then, sister Sarah, who operates an entrepreneurial, mentoring web site for young women, called pop17.com, spotted a video contest by ExchangesConnect, an international social networking component of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, that appeared to be a match made on Earth.   Its theme was "Change Your Climate, Change Our World," and what came next was lights, camera, action, as Rebekah wrote, edited, produced, and submitted her entry for consideration.

See for yourself, at http://connectcontest.state.gov/contests/change-your-climate-change-our-world/entries/top_entries

FOLLOW UP: When Candace told Cheryl Jennings at ABC-TV about Rebekah’s good fortune and her movie, Emmy Award winner and ABC-TV News co-anchor, Cheryl, viewed her video and decided that she would like to mentor Rebekah for a career in broadcasting.  You will be learning from the best, Rebekah, and we wish you the best success.