A Davidson College student’s 3-minute video feature about an inspiring employee at the student dining hall has been selected as a semi-finalist for a national journalism award.

Senior Mark Jeevaratnam‘s video “Sharon Hill: The Smile of Commons” focuses on Ms. Hill, who works at Vail Commons dining hall. Mr. Jeevaratnam learned of his selection Tuesday in the “Project: Report” competition run by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-profit journalism institute based in Washington, D.C. The contest is co-sponsored by YouTube and Sony.

As a semi-finalist, “Jeeves” will have the chance to compete for one of five $10,000 Pulitzer Center grants to travel abroad and report on an under-reported international issue.

Selection as a semi-finalist is an impressive recognition for an aspiring documentarian. In its second year, “Project: Report” has been advertised across the web, and its YouTube page had attracted well over a million views and nearly 150 video submissions before the first of two rounds concluded at the end of February.

When he won, Jeeves says, “Oh man, it was nuts. I couldn’t believe it! My video was something I just thought I would do to try to build my portfolio. The fact that that video went so far is awesome and makes me really happy.”

As their assignment for round one of the contest, “Project: Report” entrants were instructed to make a three-minute video about a “change agent” in their communities. For Jeeves, Ms. Hill was an obvious choice.

Students on campus love Ms. Hill for her smiles and great sense of humor. “I’ve gotten to know Sharon over my four years at Davidson,” Jeeves says. “I just know that she’s always so caring, so positive. A lot of times when I’ll be feeling down or other people come in [to Commons] feeling down, she’ll do little things to brighten people’s days. I thought that fit the prompt really well and thought she’s someone the world should meet.”

Although Jeeves chose to major in economics at Davidson, he has been interested in video since high school, when he took several courses in news production. But it was not until the summer after his junior year at Davidson that he renewed his interest in media. Using a research grant from the College, Jeeves traveled to the Philippines and produced a documentary video about overseas Filipino workers, migrants who leave their homes to work all over the world. In 2008, remittances from these workers totaled nearly $16 billion—a substantial percentage of the Philippines’ GDP.

“My mom’s from the Philippines. I really wanted to learn about that part of my heritage,” Jeeves recalls. “A big part of travel grants is about what can you bring back to the Davidson community. I thought it would be fun to bring back a video instead of just doing an essay or presentation about my trip” to share my experience.

In the future, Jeeves hopes to work as a documentary filmmaker and journalist. “I’d really like to travel the world trying to tell the stories of people who do not have as much of a voice,” he says.

The next step in that journey is round two of “Project: Report.” Jeeves and the other contestants have a new assignment this time: to produce a 5-minute video about an issue that they believe has not received sufficient and/or accurate coverage in the mainstream media. Although anyone can submit a video for round two, only the semi-finalists will be eligible to win the five grand prize reporting grants.

Submissions for round two are due on April 4^th. In this round, contestants have to promote their videos using social media. Viewers will be able to vote thumbs up or down on the videos. Check back on DavidsonNews.net for updates about where you can find Jeeves’ next video and support his work.

RELATED LINKS

Watch Mark Jeevaratnam’s semifinalist video, “Sharon Hill: The Smile of Commons.”

Watch Mark Jeevaratnam’s “The Journey Beyond Me,” a documentary he produced last year about Filipino migrant workers.

PulitzerCenter.org – Read bios of Mr. Jeevaratnam and the other semi-finalists.