Waianae High's Searider Productions took 1st place in the High School Sports Challenge at the STN National Convention in Nashville with "Wrestling the Weight," above, by Nicole Tagalicud, Jayden Kepoo Caspino, Amee Neves, and Brayzhelle Williams Quitog.
Congratulations to Waianae High's Searider Productions, Maui Waena Intermediate and Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School for their first place wins in news and broadcast excellence in this year's STN Convention, which included thousands of middle and high school media students competing across a number of media categories.
And congratulations to Waipahu High (Best Editing) and Moanalua High (Best Visual Effects), which earned national distinction in film excellence categories.
The storied Searider Productions program took two 1st place prizes in STN Challenge categories including Sports Challenge ("Wrestling the Weight," above) and Public Service Announcement, or PSA ("Good Food = Better Mood," below, by Makana Allen, Chloe Galinato, Justin Rey Durupan, and Andrew Chalmers).
Searider Productions was also named the national winner for Broadcast Excellence in Monthly News Shows.
Maui Waena Intermediate took 1st place in the Feature Story category with its profile of Don Suzuki, a volunteer coach of the school's robotics team (video by Logan Tsukiyama, Samantha Della, Glenzy Salcedo, and Hannah Okamoto). Maui Waena also was named best Middle School News Show in the Broadcast Excellence category.
And Kauai's Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle took 1st place for its PSA, "Good Food = Better Mood," below, by Natalie Lett, Janine Salud, and Evan Batalucco. Congratulations also to Waianae Intermediate and Moanalua High for their honorable mentions in the STN Challenges as well.
2018 Convention Contests
The STN Convention is known for its on-site media contests, in which student teams put together news reports, PSAs, live interviews, convention recaps and more, all in the span of just a few hours. Hawaii schools earned several top spots, and our middle schools swept two categories:
ANCHOR TEAM (high school)
- 3rd place, Kalaheo High (Emily Casey, Noah Casey, Ami Kinnamon, Kehaulani Bringas)
- Honorable Mention, Waianae High (Elizabeth Ufi, Amee Neves, Jordyn Watkins-Oka)
CONVENTION RECAP (high school)
- 1st place, Moanalua High (Chloe Popa, Mari Kimoto, Trinna Tran)
MOVIE TRAILER (high school)
- Honorable Mention, Kapolei High (Noah Tomas, Micah Rondon)
NATIONAL PACKAGE (high school)
- 1st place, Waianae High (Jillion Jeremiah, Christen Guzman)
ANCHOR TEAM (middle school)
- Honorable Mention, Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle (Ty Kajihara, Jasmine Ruiz, Janine Salud)
CONVENTION RECAP (middle school)
- Honorable Mention, Waipahu Intermediate (Chase Ignacio, Rachel Sabido, Jenah Acosta, Clarisa Wegesend, Luke Stevens)
- Honorable Mention, Maui Waena Intermediate (Shyla Orquia, Gwen Jaramillo)
MOVIE TRAILER (middle school)
- 1st place, Maui Waena Intermediate (Jaime Raigoza, Zoe Zane, Samantha Della, Emily Tom)
- 2nd place, Waipahu Intermediate (Mae Ann Acio, Cassandra Dumaslan, Anghele Sarmiento, Allyssa Baldoria, Jerryd Bumanglag)
- 3rd place, Kealakehe Intermediate (Taylor Campogan, Trystne Nozaki, Gavin Scarbrough)
NATIONAL PACKAGE (middle school)
- 3rd place, Waianae Intermediate (Shakirah Gordon, Iris Gee Ty)
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT (middle school)
- 1st place, Maui Waena Intermediate (Jaycie Iha, Anela Menor, Reynel Cariaga)
- 3rd place, Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle (Natalie Lett, Haley Arakaki, Halea Ventura)
SILENT FILM (middle school)
- 1st place, Maui Waena Intermediate (Meledee Ota, Renzo Gaioran, Keithjan Qualil-Lan)
SPOT FEATURE (middle school)
- 1st place, Kealakehe Middle (Aiden Schutte, Farren Ho'okala-Allen)
- 2nd place, Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle (Mia Matsunaga, Kate Nakamura)
- 3rd place, Maui Waena Intermediate (Logan Tsukiyama, Hannah Okamoto, Cailyn Omuro)
CRAZY 8s BROADCAST NEWS MAGAZINE (high school)
CRAZY 8s SHORT FILM DOCUMENTARY (high school)
CRAZY 8s BROADCAST NEWS MAGAZINE (middle school)
- 1st place, Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle
- 2nd place, Waianae Intermediate
SHORT FILM FICTION (middle school)
- 2nd place, Maui Waena Intermediate
- Honorable Mention, Waianae Intermediate
'Aloha Spirit'
One of the founding members of the Student Television Network, Dave Davis, wrote a blog post recapping this year's STN Convention and had a nice shout-out to Hawai'i's teams:
"Finally, Hawaii. It is our 50th state, but it may be the number 1 state in STN. What a fun group to witness, the pride they have in each other's achievements, their kindness to others, that "aloha spirit" they bring to STN every year. They have some of the best video producers in the nation, both middle school and high school. In fact, their middle schools kids' work was the most impressive thing I saw this year at STN. Keep that "Hawaii" chant going, kids. You are setting the bar high for all of us."
