Filipino student stands to win $250,000 scholarship grant

By: 7 years ago

Eighteen-year-old Filipina Hilary Diane Andales’ educational video is a joy to watch—not just because it’s one of 15 finalists out of 11,000 entries for the annual science competition Breakthrough Junior Challenge but also for putting forward old-school learning videos back into our consciousness.

When I was a child, I always looked forward to waking up to the theme song of Sineskwela. I barely remember any of the lessons learned from the science show, but I can still recall how fun it was to study the often hated subject through that show. While we have Kuya Kim and some local educational shows on weekends, it’s quite rare to find one as engaging as Sineskwela.

As traditional media embraces advancing technology, social media has now become a leading avenue for content creators to educate people in a more creative, enjoyable manner—much like Sineskwela and in the same vein that the Breakthrough Junior Challenge founded by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has been doing.

In her entry, the Philippine Science High School-Eastern Visayas student and regional champion discusses Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and the concept of reference frame in under three minutes—using animation no less.

“Observers in different frames will perceive different versions of reality. And every observer’s frame is equally valid. So before you start any observational arguments with others, first imagine yourself observing through their reference frames,” the aspiring physicist who also reached last year’s finals says in the video.

If Andales wins, she’ll receive a $250,000 college scholarship grant, in addition to the $50,000 prize for the mentor and the $100,000 state-of-the-art science laboratory for the school.

We hope Andales brings home the top prize and, eventually, see more engaging educational videos back on television and all over our news feed.

Header image courtesy of Breakthrough Junior Challenge and Hilary Diane Andales