Most everybody knows that Eleanor Roosevelt High School is full of students bursting with science and technology related talent, but what about … film making?

In only about a month, Seniors Montana Monardes and Dayo Adebanjo created a three-minute film for the first-ever White House film festival, expressing their talents while also highlighting the school’s technology program.

Out of 3000 entries, Monardes’s and Adebanjo’s film was chosen to receive honorable mention, which was awarded to 128 K-12 students, and is highlighted on the White House website.

The film responds to the prompt of technology’s place at school. It takes the viewer on a tour through ERHS, displaying all the ways that Eleanor Roosevelt HS utilizes various technologies, from the robotics team, to Edmodo, to the school’s recent play Into the Woods.

Monardes and Adebanjo interviewed teachers Ms. Coons, Dr. Taylor, Mr. Bradbury, and Mr. Mannino and exhibited the great diversity of ERHS through a variety of student interviews.

“There were a lot of people in the video who were teachers in our school and students in our school,” said Monardes, who described filmmaking as a “hobby” of his. He continued that it “really showed off our school in a positive light, so I think that’s something that people enjoyed about it.”

Adebanjo added, “This guy that I work with at NASA, he also got to be in the video … he showed a bunch of his friends and they showed a bunch of other people, so like at NASA they got to see a lot of the video … It’s cool that other people got to see it.”

Ms. Kathleen McGlew, teacher of both Monardes and Adebanjo, was full of praise for her students. “They’re a joy to work with,” said Ms. McGlew, who is also the chairperson of TV production at ERHS. “They inspire a lot of other students.”

When asked if she felt that private schools or school in richer areas may have had an advantage, Ms. McGlew responded with “yes and no.”

She elaborated, “It always boils down to a story well told. Its how you communicate it…So it’s a combination of both, of having the facilities, the equipment, but also having a good story that is well planned and having the tenacity to follow through on a difficult project.”

Both Monardes and Adebanjo heard about the contest in an email from Ms. McGlew, although many other sources alerted Monardes of the opportunity. He said, “I heard about it probably from like five different people who don’t even know each other, so it was a big deal, ‘cuz a lot of people had heard about it, and they were passing it along through emailing people, and it just seemed like a really cool opportunity ‘cuz it’s the white house and it was a nationwide thing.” He said that along with the encouragement of his teacher, he thought “Why not?”

Monardes and Adebanjo both seemed happy with their accomplishment, although one could tell that getting the metaphorical-bronze felt bittersweet. Both students wished that they could have gone to the White House. Adebanjo said, “I don’t know about finalist, but I think that we should have been able to go to the White House.”

http://youtu.be/lq-C4sC0gyo