Five Effingham students will be traveling to California at the end of October to receive awards from the International Student Media Festival.

The ISMF started about 20 years ago, according to Peggy Helmly, media specialist at South Effingham Elementary. At that time, radio plays and slide projections were used as multimedia presentations.

She said the festival lost momentum in the county.

“About seven years ago interest in it began again,” Helmly said.

Now students use digital media including power point, movie maker, animation and digital photography and video.

“It’s steadily been building,” Helmly said. “More schools are coming on board.”

The media club she advises began four years ago. Students have eight weeks in which they learn how to use various media and storyboard ideas for projects. After eight weeks of learning, the students have about a month to complete their projects.

Students’ projects are judged at the county level and those receiving superior ratings go to the state.

Helmly said the state and international festivals are not connected, but students given a superior rating at the state level have projects that are considered projects that would be successful at the international level.

From the county, 78 projects were sent to the state level, and 21 of those were sent to the international level.
Of those projects Corey Baker, a student at South Effingham Elementary, Troy Rahn, a student at Effingham County Middle, Cassidy Blewett, a student at Springfield Elementary, Emilee Mikulsky and Taylor Coleman, students at Ebenezer Elementary received Excellence in Media Production awards.

The award winning students had a variety of topics including Baker’s “Hay Day” created in movie maker, Rahn’s “ABC Guide to the Savannah Area” in movie maker, Blewett’s “Owl Knowledge” in movie maker, Mikulsky’s “Never Ending Story of the Water Cycle” in movie maker and Coleman’s Karin Leonard project in power point.

The students said they are excited to see another part of the country on the trip.

Mikulsky said she is looking forward to collecting facts about California and going to Disney Land. Rahn said he is looking forward to a tour of the Los Angeles area. Baker said he is excited to see a friend who moved to California a few years ago.

Helmly said the school board has supported the students by providing funds for some of the travel costs to attend the festival and receive the awards.

There will be a garage sale at Rincon First Christian Church on Oct. 6 from 7 a.m. until noon to help raise money to cover the remaining cost.