The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group is holding a contest for Ontario’s grade 12 students, challenging them to share what lessons they have learned amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The insurer is asking students who are graduating high school and about to start post-secondary education in 2020 to produce short videos – as short as 30 seconds, to as long as two minutes – about any lesson they have learned outside of the classroom. The videos can be as simple as a quick video message or produced as creatively as possible, but all participating entries must be uploaded to Commonwell Mutual’s website.
Commonwell Mutual will select 100 winners from among the entries, who will each receive a $1,000 prize. According to the insurer, the prize will be applied towards post-secondary education for the winning students.
“These are unprecedented times and we are all learning unique lessons while we live during this pandemic,” said Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group president and CEO Tim Shauf. “We know that there is a lot of learning and growing up going on for Ontario students outside the classroom right now and we wanted to find a way to celebrate that while helping these students financially prepare for the next stage in their education.”
Entries so far include about how one student learned not to be dismissive of her mental health issues during the pandemic; another student learning about the importance of her relationship with her local community; and another student saying how he learned how to be productive through online courses.
“With this contest, we’re seeing an interesting mix of humour and serious video submissions that are giving us a really interesting insight into what our kids are really going through,” Shauf commented, adding that Commonwell Mutual wants to support the continued development of these students to turn them into “active participants and leaders for our communities of the future.”
