Winners of Barrytown College’s 2014 Video Contest Announced

On January 27, 2014, Barrytown College of UTS announced its 2014 video contest with a grand prize of $2,000. Anyone between the ages of 15 and 29 was eligible to enter a video with the theme of “Giving.” After receiving more than 10 entries in three months from around the country, the voting committee spent three weeks to determine the finalists and winner. “The videos entered show a lot of creativity of our Unificationist-born youth and other young people,” said Dr. Richard Panzer, the college’s president. He also explained the reason behind the theme for the year: “We chose this theme because this was a core teaching of the college’s founder, and because we know from the previous two years of the video contest that talented young adult filmmakers around the country and diverse parts of the world will tackle this core teaching of the world’s religions in surprising, engaging and innovative ways. We also see a convergence between religious perspectives on ‘Giving’ and recent scientific discoveries and would like to assemble content that can inspire others to orient their lives in this direction.” Video entries were judged on depth/impact/feeling, technical quality and creativity. On March 26, the finalist videos were posted on YouTube and awarded points based on the number of “likes” they received from visitors to the Barrytown College Facebook Page. The video that won first place in the competition is “Nurturing Change,” a fascinating, heartfelt animation by Shannon Forringer. Shannon, a freelance illustrator from Red Hook, N.Y., expressed that her motivation was to show that “parental love is the most unselfish way to give love.” Claire Redmond assisted with the writing of the script. The second-prize winner is “Heart” by Gabriel O’Connor, a 19-year-old filmmaker from Kansas City. Gabriel states that his goal in life “has always been to impact people with movies. Through this video I tried to capture the essence of ‘giving’ from all its different forms and show how our passions can be a form of giving also.” Winning third prize is “What Would You Give?” by Triton Marks, a student at Barrytown College, who worked with a team of students including Jenny Cox, Hitoka Sato, Dachul Okamoto and Lisonne Kang, an exchange student from Sun Moon University. Triton says that he wants to make a “positive impact on society” using media. The first, second and third prizes for this year’s video competition were $2,000, $1,000 and $500, respectively. For those who are passionate about telling their stories but were unable to contribute to this year’s contest, the Giving Institute at Barrytown College of UTS has launched a “Giving Story Project” and invites people of all backgrounds and ages to submit their stories (text, audio or video) on the theme of giving. Even though any stories submitted won’t receive a monetary reward, the thought behind the act harks back to the central theme of True Father’s teaching of living for the sake of others. “At the Giving Institute we are trying to spread that message of giving as a way of having a happy and successful life. We hope that people will want to share their stories and inspire other people to give,” said Dr. Panzer. Text, audios or videos can be sent to  GivingStoryProject@uts.eduThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .