Westfield High School senior Eric Grigoryan, who won first place in the PSA contest, with Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni. (Photo submitted)
WESTFIELD – A trio of Westfield schools had a stellar showing Wednesday night at the Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni’s “Stop the Swerve: An Event to Prevent Impaired Driving” at the Basketball Hall of Fame, winning first, third and honorable mention in the PSA competition.
Westfield High School Senior Eric Grigoryan won first place with his PSA “Irreversible,” earning WHS $10,000 to spend on new equipment for the technology department. Karen Whitaker, instructional technology lead teacher said it was an exciting evening for them both. “I had an idea that we had won or placed somewhere. Eric did an excellent job on the video,” said Whitaker about her Multimedia 2 student.
Grigoryan, on the other hand, was taken by surprise when Gulluni called his name. “I was surprised myself that I won. I wasn’t expecting it at all,” he said.
“We came up with the idea at school; brainstorming on how to make it original,” Grigoryan said about making the PSA. He said they decided to twist the story up. “You hear a car crash; show an individual running through a field. He hears a group of people in the woods talking about their accomplishments. He finds these people and tells them he’s lost, and asks, ‘Where am I.’ ‘You’re dead.’ It then moves backward in time to his decision to drive after drinking.”
“I finally understand how much work this stuff takes,” Grigoryan continued. He said he spent at least five hours scriptwriting, then a couple of hours drawing the story, finding the actors. About three hours to film, and five more to edit. More than 15 hours for the 60 second PSA.
WHS senior Eric Grigoryan. speaking about a student-led video project interviewing businesses to the Westfield Education 2 Business Alliance earlier this year. (WNG file photo)
This is not the first video that Grigoryan has made for the school. “Eric has consistently demonstrated his ability to communicate through film,” Whitaker said, including a video he made promoting the high school, which was shown during an accreditation visit by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) to the school. He also made a video promoting the WHS Culinary Arts program with teacher Margaret Toomey.
Grigoryan said he became interested in making videos through his dad’s photography business, where he starting helping out at eight years old holding light stands and flash. As he became more interested in the video side, his father bought him a camera. Grigoryan now has his own YouTube channel, GrigCinema. He also has a journal full of story ideas. “Storytelling is a passion you have to have,” he said.
“I still help him out with weddings,” said Grigoryan, who is in Virginia shooting one with his father this weekend. “I thank my Dad for pushing me. At first, I hated it, but now I’m loving it. I thank God for all these opportunities,” he said.
Whitaker said she wants to use the $10,000 prize to add to the computer room and to expand video production materials and equipment to create more professional films in the future. She said the District Attorney’s Office will be contacting them to set up a date for the presentation of the “Check” at a future date.
“I was sitting down with the teacher Thursday, looking through catalogs at what equipment would benefit the class. It was like window shopping, only, I thought, this is legit, you actually have $10,000 to spend, and can use it for something good,” Grigoryan said.
He also won a $100 Amazon gift card at the Stop the Swerve event, which he was pretty excited about. “Double luck,” he called it.
Grigoryan talked about his plans after graduation. “If I could get enough exposure for my business, I’d probably only focus on my business,” he said. He is also thinking of attending Holyoke Community College to get a business degree, and then transfer to UMASS for advertising and marketing. Or, he may go to STCC for Mechanical applications and engineering, and study Computer Aided Design (CAD). He is still trying to decide what to do.
Members of the White Oak School media class with Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Guluni at the Basketball Hall of Fame. (Photo submitted)
For third place winner White Oak School, the PSA was a group project created in Joanne Daley’s media class for juniors and seniors. This is the second year they entered the contest, Daley said, winning honorable mention and $1,000 last year. This year, the prize was $2,500.
The media class at White Oak is year-round. Students begin in their junior year with news-based instruction, learning how to give interviews and keep eye contact. The seniors get into both independent and group projects, and learn how to edit using iMovie.
Their video takes place at a house party, where a boy is leaving drunk, and his friends give him the keys to his car. The video then rewinds, and the friends invite him to stay over. The piece is called “True Friends.” Daley said the students created their own music for it.
Daley said it was difficult for the students to edit the Stop the Swerve PSA down to 60 seconds. “Videotaping is the quick part,” she said.
“When the DA began announcing the winners and he said they chose the top 6 PSA’s out of 15, we knew our PSA was good, but we still were not sure. Our teacher Ms. Daley reassured us that we ‘got this,’“ said White Oak senior Nick Reilly, who directed the video.
Reilly said the DA then announced, “Our third place winner goes to White Oak School.”
“We were all super ecstatic! We couldn’t believe that we had won third place and $2,500 to go towards any technology based equipment for the school. We were so happy to take part in such an important event,” Reilly said.
As a class they decided to buy a Smartboard for an elementary school classroom with the $2,500 in prize money, Daley said.
Westfield Technical Academy also won Honorable Mention in the PSA contest, and $1,000 for technology for the school.
Other winners on Wednesday included Agawam High School, which won second place and $5,000 in the PSA contest. The winning billboard was submitted by the Springfield Conservatory of the Arts with an honorable mention going to Pope Francis High School. The schools will receive $2,500 and $1,000 respectively. The winning billboard will also be featured as a billboard within Hampden County in the near future.
“I am tremendously proud to present these awards to these young people and the schools they represent. All of the students involved did a superb job and helped meet our objective to prevent all forms of distracted and impaired driving and to ultimately save lives on the roads of this region, ” said Hampden County District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni. “Our Stop the Swerve campaign aims to teach kids and young adults about the dangers of impaired, drunk, and drugged driving at a time when they are forming their driving habits, and will therefore make them life-long safe drivers.”
The contest was made possible by a grant from the Drunk Driving Trust Fund which is administered by the Massachusetts Office of Victim Assistance.
