Anakin Jackson wins nextLI video contest

At this year’s BASH (Broadcast Awards for Senior High) ceremony at Stony Brook University, nextLI’s outreach and engagement manager Coralie Saint-Louis announced Anakin Jackson of Southold High School as the 2019 winner in the nextLI category.

The contest asked high school students to document their interactions with culture, race, ethnicity and/or gender at their schools. It was meant to start a dialogue about what happens at high school campuses across the region and have students lead the conversation.

Students submitted videos about the plight of unaccompanied minors; a school magazine that documents the stories of students who speak English as a second language; a school campaign about what the student body will not stand for; and how problems in the home and domestic violence can impact a student’s behavior at school.

Visitors to next.newsday.com had an opportunity to vote for the semi-finalists during a one week voting process. Students from four high schools, West Islip, Southold, Greenport and Long Beach then spent weeks working on polishing their final contest submissions.

The nextLI team worked with Newsday’s award-winning multimedia department to pick the winner, and narrowed it down to two contenders who’s storytelling and video production abilities were impressive.

Ashanti Sherred’s video “Lost and Found,” which explores domestic violence was named runner-up and Anakin Jackson’s video “The American Chapter,” which looked at Southold’s ENL magazine and stories of immigrants, won overall.