2 Belizean students among top four winners in regional competition
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) is observed annually in the Caribbean on May seventeenth. It is spearheaded by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and this past Saturday, to commemorate the occasion, a Trinidad and Tobago based company, CANTO, engaged in several activities including a video competition. Held under the theme, “Broadband for Sustainable Development,” several countries within the region, including Belize participated. The entries were judged on creativity, originality, message content, and technical organization and two Belizeans were among the top four winners of the competition. News Five spoke today to eighteen year old University of Belize student, William Mahler who won the top prize.
William Mahler, Winner, CANTO’s WTISD-Video Competition
“I saw the flyer at my university and I was like, I’ll give it a try. We were supposed to create a three minutes video on the theme, “Broadband for Sustainable Development.’ When I saw the flyer, I didn’t even know what broadband means, so I had to do some research and look up on the topics and… I’ve been competing from since I’ve been in primary school, but my video in terms of making it in simple words, my video was basically how high speed internet impacts my life, impacts my country. How it helps me, how it helps my country.”
Duane Moody
“Putting it together. How long did it take you to actually put it together and when were you made aware that you were on top?”
William Mahler
“Well in terms of putting it together, I had to get someone to help me to shoot the video because when I looked at the prize, I was like mien, this is a competition so I had to get someone with a high quality camera, someone who would be able to compose the video for me. So I had to do my research and come up with the content and be creative in what I want my video to look like. But I had a guy by the name of Deron Thompson, who helped me composed the video—who shot the video. When I won, I got a phone call from one of the executives of CANTO and I was shocked, I was surprised that I had one. And I was like did I won, did I won; did I just won. I was surprised.”
Andrea Gutierrez, St. Andrews Anglican School, Belize placed fourth in the competition.
No comments on positive stories? Only when it involves corruption, death and crime? Come on people…..congratulations Mr. Mahler!