Captivate: UTSC's Digital Storytelling Competition
Captivate is UTSC's Digital Storytelling Competition and is made possible by the Sandford Borins Award in Digital Communications. It gives UTSC students the opportunity to create a short digital story—a video, podcast, website, or another format—that tells their story, and learn key skills that every industry professional and content creator needs to know.
Congratulations to the 2022 winners! Check out their creations below.
First Place: 1/340,000 by Yixuan Zhang
Can you imagine studying in China? Did you hear about the university entry exam GaoKao? Chinese students study hard for the purpose of having wonderful grades in GaoKao which could help them to enter a better university and have a future with more opportunities. Every year, there are 340,000 students participate in the exam and this is one of the 340,000. This is my story, this is a Chinese story.
Yixuan Zhang is a first-year student at the University of Toronto Scarborough studying in the Department of Management.
Second Place: Am I becoming who I want to be? by Sakura Lee
I’ve always thought that achieving your dreams is the ultimate success in life, it’s the title that you receive, the status that you interpret which makes you feel successful about yourself. As a child, becoming a performing artist was what I’ve always dreamt of, it was the only definition of success. Yet, after ten years, I’ve finally learnt and accepted that that wasn’t the case.
This video is a story of how my dream started, proceeded, fell, but has not fallen completely because I’ve learnt that with a strong purpose held by heart, if you keep on dreaming, believing, and not giving up, your dream will still be there. It is waiting for you to make it shine in the right way: your way.
Sakura Lee is a second year student at the University of Toronto Scarborough studying in the Department of Arts, Culture & Media.
Third Place Remember To Live Before Checkmate by Elvis Agbemelo
"My Story" is uniquely identical to that of the other 8 billion people on this planet. We spend our entire lives trying to figure out who we are, where we fit, what's our purpose.
We aim at being as free as the queen on the chessboard, while pretending to be the kings of our own stories, and denying that we are nothing else than the pawns of our own lives, figuring life out, square by square.
This poem is an ode to vulnerability, and acceptance. I am not defined by any particular thing, because I am the combination of so many things at once.
There is a multi-dimensionality to me, to all of us. You can "wear different hats"? Well, I wear different suits, and in a certain sense, they all represent a different part of me.
Memento Vivere. These two words, that's my story: A daily struggle to remember to live, before it's too late...before checkmate. And I'm pretty sure it might be yours too.
Elvis Agbemelo is a third-year student at the University of Toronto Scarborough studying in the Department of Management.
