From the Nominator

The goal of the project is to inspire high school students to apply to the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. We specifically focused on the students who fall into these categories: first generation potential college students, under-represented minorities, and students from low socio-economic backgrounds. We wanted to reach students who may not have otherwise considered the University of Michigan. We did that by creating a video that speaks directly to minority Gen Z students, and helps them better understand ways that the University of Michigan can be affordable to them.

The world of university grants, scholarships, and loans can be disheartenedly complex. We worked to combat that. We designed an animation that uses real student voices and their perspectives to encourage potential students, and point them toward resources they can utilize applying to the University of Michigan.

COVID-19 presented additional challenges to filming the video in a way that was safe for students and our staff. We decided to turn a challenge into an opportunity, and interviewed students on Zoom instead of in person. We then turned the interviewees into animated characters.

We ventured into the world of animation despite having limited experience in this area, and limited resources. We produced the animation entirely in-house and on a shoestring. Our staffers were literally learning how to create such an animation at the same time as we were designing and creating one.

From the Judges

Original and refreshing. The match-up at the end between cartoon and real-life person was clever. All the more impressive given the limited experience of the animation team. Truly showed a can-do attitude from all involved.