ERHS AP Japanese students participated in the Video Koshien competition, an international online competition in which students create a short film focusing on a central theme, that is shared with other students from Japan and the U.S. to enrich knowledge of each other’s culture. This school year’s theme was “Our School Cool,” chosen by the KAC (Kizuna Across Cultures) Organization.

The competition had both national and international winners. ERHS won first place in America and second place overall, behind the grand prize winner, Japan’s Murasakino High School. Hawaii’s Kamehameha High School placed behind ERHS in the US.

AP Japanese students Asia Allen, Daniel Bustos, Raymond Chen, Charles Co, Shaira Mae Francisco, Liam Greaves, Kiana Green, Melanie McFarland, Dion Philbert, Elece Smith, and Kat Yangilmau triumphantly constructed a video using the topic of diversity to represent ERHS. Senior Captain Daniel Bustos said, “this specific theme was ‘what makes your school unique and cool?’ So we chose to focus it on diversity, because Roosevelt is the most diverse school you can really get in Maryland.”

Senior co-captain Shaira Mae Francisco stated, “I was really interested in spreading the American culture so we can learn about the Japanese culture as well.”

“It was a really interesting way to look at our school, and it was a good way to learn Japanese by introducing the school,” added senior Elece Smith.

The students encountered many obstacles while doing the video. Bustos stated that the video was done over the winter break, along with the extra snow days. “The snow really messed up our schedule and the way we would contact each other. It was stressful. We were [a] couple hours away to submit from the deadline,” said Bustos. AP Japanese Teacher Mr. Tetsuo Ogawa said, “They spent at least a month or two to prepare this videotape. Pretty much, the students did it all by themselves.”

According to Bustos, the plan to construct the video was to split the work among each participating student. “Some of us made the scripts, some of us were taking video, and some of us were editing,” said Bustos. The project was put together by Bustos with the help of Francisco, who did the voice over in Japanese for clarification purposes to explain their theme, stated Francisco.

“To see our video made us appreciate our school a bit more,” said Smith. “We learned a lot about ERHS in the process…. it was helping us understand ourselves too,” stated senior Melanie McFarland.

The AP Japanese students finished off the competition with pride. “I was pretty sure we were going to make it to first place,” said Smith. “Honestly, yes, we [have] seen all of the other school videos, and we usually do a really good job. I expected the best,” said McFarland.