ROBINSON, Texas — A Robinson High School graduate and freshman at McLennan Community College is going places. He has a chance to win a prestigious global science competition, which would mean a huge prize purse for him, his high school and his teacher.
Meet Mathew Ruggieri. His video entry for students aged 13-18 in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge is quite impressive, and it's even more impressive that out of the 2400 entries submitted worldwide, he's in the final 30!
“What caught my eye in this contest is the filmmaking aspect of it," Ruggieri said. "I like making videos, I guess you could call me a filmmaker. And so, it's kind of just taking those two things that I like doing and that I’m interested in and just combining them into one. And so that was a cool thing to do.“
The two-minute video submission for the prestigious global science award explains gravity and the theory of relativity, and the great thing is that in today's times, Ruggieri used no C-G-I images.
"I wanted to use all practical effects as much as possible, like no CGI, no computer programs or anything like that." Ruggieri said. "Complete convention, just setting up a camera and filming the actual physics happening, you know, in a live demonstration."
Should Ruggieri win, he'll secure a $25,000 scholarship for himself, a $50,000 scholarship for his teacher and a brand new state of the art science lab worth $100,000 for Robinson High School.
"The winner would also get a $100,000 Breakthrough Science Lab for the school so if that were to happen, you know, Robinson High School would get that lab," Ruggieri said, explaining what he's most excited about. "And that would just be super cool to see what they do with that and how it could impact future generations. Maybe inspire other people to pursue STEM. You know those resources would be great for the school."
If you'd like to watch Ruggieri's entire video, just click here.
If you’d like to vote for him, click here.
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