Winners of SDSU Student Instagram COVID-19 PSA Video Contest Named
The top, student-generated videos will be used to promote staying safe and healthy.
Three video contest winners have been selected as part of a competition open exclusively for San Diego State University students to create brief public service announcements promoting the importance of staying safe during the pandemic.
The winning videos were sent in by seniors Angel Juarez and Jake Bryan Bonifacio and graduate student Ana Alvarez. Juarez is a kinesiology major, Bonifacio is a marketing major, and Alvarez is doing her master’s in public health specializing in health promotion and behavioral science.
SDSU partnered with the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) to conduct the contest in July. Students were invited to create short, effective messages encouraging their peers and the public to practice social distancing, wear masks and wash their hands frequently, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Students were asked to submit the videos on Instagram using #SDSUCOVIDPSA. They could be in Spanish or English, and had to be 15- to 30-seconds in length.
“I’m so proud of the contributions of our students,” said Hala Madanat, director of the SDSU School of Public Health and lead organizer of the contest. “Their response to this campaign and the high quality videos they produced to support safe behavior has been outstanding.”
Both SDSU and the County HHSA will use the winning videos on social media to promote the importance of following county public health guidelines.
“We really appreciate the creativity and continued partnership of SDSU’s School of Public Health as we collectively address the ongoing threat of the novel coronavirus,” said Nick Macchione, director of San Diego County's Health and Human Services Agency who leads T-3, the county’s program to expand COVID-19 testing, tracing and treatment throughout the region. “The videos I watched clearly and effectively delivered all the right messages to our youth population.”
The winners were informed via Instagram and will soon receive Apple AirPods for their winning entries. The contest was judged by a committee comprising both SDSU and county staff.
