Modesto high school students’ distracted-driving campaign wins national contest
A campaign by a team of Johansen High School students and its teacher has won a national contest to raise awareness on prevention of distracted driving.
The Create Real Impact contest, created by Impact Teen Drivers, combats the No. 1 cause of teen deaths in America: car crashes that result from distracted or reckless driving.
In the contest, students competed on their own or working with teacher advisers. At Johansen, health teacher Kelly Nasrawi and student leaders created Survive the Drive, a campaign that posted gifs, informational graphics and public service announcement videos on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The messages were shared by partners that included the California Highway Patrol, the Modesto Police Department and Modesto City Schools. The campaign ran April 5-9 for National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
The Create Real Impact Contest received over 1,000 individual entries, said Alison Sorscher, director of operations for Sacramento-based Impact Teen Drivers.
The first-place school was to win $10,000, but there were fewer than 30 entries for the teacher/adviser social media campaign category, Sorscher said, so per contest rules, the full amount was not awarded. But “the judging panel determined that Johansen High School’s strong messaging and creative design warranted a modified top prize of $5,000,” she said.
The judging panel was made up of education experts. For the teacher/adviser social media campaign category, she said, the panel used the following judging criteria: 25% concept and creativity, 25% execution of the campaign, 50% effectiveness of the message.
Similarly, individual entries are judged on these criteria: 25% concept/creativity, 25% execution of the idea, 50% effectiveness of the message.
The Impact Teen Driving program recently was begun at Johansen by Doctors Medical Center registered nurse Rena Bryant, who also is coordinator of Safe Kids Stanislaus, and the CHP Modesto area office. It is funded by the CHP and the California Office of Traffic Safety.
For more information about ITD or to schedule a presentation for teens or parents, email info@ImpactTeenDrivers.org or call 916-733-7432.
