There is only one subject that everyone can talk about for hours, whether they want to or not: Themselves. But it is not often that someone can be rewarded for it.
However, with the Samsung Opto-Electronics America, Inc.’s All About Me contest, students across the country had a chance to do just that. Adrian Pizarro, a fourth-grade student at Public School No. 5 in West New York, was one of the three winners chosen nationally.
“Kids were fascinated with the subject matter – themselves,” said the Director of Marketing at the Samsung company Michael Strange. “They photographed and wrote about family, home, friends, pets, hobbies and other familiar subjects from their everyday lives and wound up with a beautiful sentimental keepsake that will be treasured forever.”
This contest, which received 5, 366 entries from 438 schools, is in its third year. The three winners received a free personal computer courtesy of Best Buy Co., Inc., and a Kensington VideoCam Digital PC Camera “I’ve never won anything before,” said Pizarro. “My grandma said that this is one step closer to me being famous.”
The three winners will also be featured in an article in Instructor Magazine. The other winners who will be featured came from Mississippi and California.
What contest?
Pizarro said that he was taken completely by surprise when he heard that he was the winner of this contest. “I thought it was just a project we had to do,” said Pizarro, who didn’t realize that he was entering a national contest. “I didn’t know that there was that many kids competing.”
The contest was introduced to the students by their teacher Nikki Corbett, who read about it in a newspaper over the summer.
The school was given special notebooks for the assignment and cameras for the students to use to take the pictures.
“Almost each night, another student brought home the camera,” said Corbett, who thought that using a camera for a project would be something fun for the students.
This project was completed by all 75 of the school’s fourth grade students.
Pizarro said that remembering his first memory was the hardest part of the assignment.
“I remember so many things that I did,” said Pizarro who said that the assignment took him a few days to complete. “I couldn’t remember which came first.”
Taking the pictures was the easy part for Pizarro.
“I like to use cameras a lot,” said Pizarro, who took pictures of his house, his family and his friends. “My mother taught me how to develop pictures.”
Corbett said that the prize could not have been given to a better student.
“I am glad that someone who works hard was able to receive such a wonderful prize,” said Corbett, adding that Pizarro is in the school’s gifted and talented program. “This proves that hard work and diligence can pay off.”
Winning this contest will also help Pizarro learn more about computers and technology. Pizarro will now be able to use a computer at home and in school.
“We only really play games [on the computer], so I don’t know how to use one that good,” said Pizarro. “But my uncle is teaching me so I am learning now.”