WORCESTER—Burncoat High School students are being celebrated as top winners in this year’s Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Safe Streets Smart Trips video contest.
The annual contest, launched in 2014, challenges high schoolers to create videos on roadway safety, and this year’s theme, “Empathy at the Intersection,” encouraged them to explore road safety through a lens of understanding all users’ perspectives. Burncoat’s team, comprising Nadia Lubowicki, Lilianna Gonzalez, Stevie Hughes, Kelley Graves, and Aidan Spofford, won the grand prize in the junior/senior category with their video, “E.M.P.A.T.H.Y.”
The Safe Streets Smart Trips contest is part of the state’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan, which aims to make Massachusetts’ streets safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers. Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt praised the students’ work, noting that “young and passionate filmmakers” have the opportunity to remind road users about safety. “We are thrilled to recognize this year’s contest winners whose creative work embodies the idea of ‘Empathy at the Intersection,’” Tibbits-Nutt said in a press release.
Burncoat High School was one of several winning teams honored at MassDOT’s Moving Together Conference, an event held in Worcester to share transportation safety initiatives.
Other awardees included students from Newton North, Medford Vocational Technical High School, and Dartmouth High, who took runner-up and honorable mentions in both Freshman/Sophomore and Junior/Senior categories.
The grand prize winners received $600 Amazon gift cards, while runners-up were awarded $300. Top entries, including Burncoat’s winning video, may even appear in future MassDOT safety campaigns.
For Worcester students, the win underscores their commitment to making local roads safer, a message resonating citywide and beyond.
News releases can be submitted to editor Charlene Arsenault at carsenault@theworcesterguardian.org
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