As we get closer to the end of the Sweet 16 round and the beginning of the Elite 8 we wanted to go over some of the fierce competition.

Take the match up of Ravyen Wray and Innsu Kim.  This match up has turned into a musical faceoff! With both contestants posting videos of their musical talent these two are running a close race.  Ravyen Wray displays her singing and song writing talent while Innsu Kim displays his piano composing and playing skills. Check out their videos below and go vote for who you thinks deserves $20,000!

PS If you play the two videos at the same time it sounds pretty cool!

Jessica Cronnin is an aspiring graphic designer that has done an amazing job here in this years March Madnezz competition.  She has pushed through to the Final 64 and was able to get published in two newspaper articles! With amazing talent and such determination we know that even though this scholarship wasn’t in the cards for her, she will be able to accomplish so much!  We wish you luck Jessica! We hope to see you participating in other Zinch scholarships! Keep up the great work.

-Zinch Team

More Zinchers are getting out there and showcasing themselves! We would like to highlight two students that took the initiative to tell us about themselves!

Lindsey Bell is a member of the Final 64 competing in the feirce competition.  She shared with some of her hopes and dreams she wants to accomplish with the help of the Sweet Diggity Dawg Scholarship.

My dreams of becoming a child welfare social worker don’t correspond with a life changing moment. They don’t mimic a beloved family member or hero’s experiences. I can’t offer a background filled with chronic illnesses that consumed my childhood, abuse from a family member, or the many winter nights I walked the streets, homeless. Instead I hope to change a child’s life whose future could resemble any of the aforementioned. After attending Lipscomb University, by founding a rehabilitation center for abused foster children, I plan to provide kids with a secure, nurturing environment to grow, laugh, learn, and live without fear, and surround them within a safe haven of social workers, fellow friends, and educators. I believe that my dreams, when executed, have the potential to change the world, or at least benefit one child’s life.

Micheal Erickson, an advocate for International Relief Teams, has pledged to donate $0.05 per vote! That sure doesn’t seem like much until the votes really start adding up. So get out there and vote! Here is a video that highlights a little more about International Relief Teams.

We are proud to announce the following are this years Cinderella 6:

Nicholas Teleky had the Largest Facebook Fan page with 13,122 members at the deadline! Congratulations Nicholas! Check him out in the North Bracket.

Queen Alike had the Most invites with 269 invites! Way to go! Check her out in the South Bracket.

Williams Jung made an amazing Cinderella 6 video! And as Jeff Zhao can attest, we here at Zinch love raps! Check him out in the East Bracket.

The hand picks:

Rani Morales came in a close second with a Facebook Fan page with 12,338 members at the deadline! With such a close margin we had to pick her! Congrats Rani! Check her out in the East Bracket.

Jessica Cronin was hand picked to be in the Cinderella 6 because of her great job at making headline news! Keep up the advertising Jessica! Check her out in the West Bracket.

Kathryn Buncik made an awesome stop motion video that we just couldn’t ignore! Great job Kathryn! Check her out in the East Bracket.

Thanks to everyone that participated in the Cinderella 6 competition! There were so many amazing videos, fan pages and high inviters it was some tough picking. Good luck to you 6!

We keep on finding out about more and more March Madnezz applicants in the Media! We love to find you getting out there and campaigning! Quick reminder that Regionals has officially ended! The Final 64 round begins in two days on March 19th!

Jessica Cronin was featured in a newspaper! She let us know by tagging Jojo in a picture of the article on Facebook. So if you have been featured in the media let us know! Either in the comments here or the most creative way you can think of! Jessica, an aspiring graphic designer, has done some amazing work!

Elizabeth Quinn has been featured in multiple new articles for her Tufts Video submission.  She has some amazing talent for stop go videos! Check out her two videos.

We decided to do a little interview of her ourselves to learn more about what makes such a great artist tick.

What was your inspiration for each video?

First and foremost, my inspiration comes from the music. After listening to a particularly evocative song, I’ll immediately be hit with vivid imagery.

For the Tufts supplement video, I originally had a short film in mind that would have had no reference to me it was going to be an experiment with colors. Then the Tufts prompt (Create a one minute youtube video about yourself) came out over the summer and I decided to tweak the original idea to fit the prompt. The video ended up appearing very non-sequitur and nothing like what I originally planned, but it definitely caught the attention of the media.

The Cacophobia video was inspired by my ongoing AP Photography project. I am currently building together a portfolio portraying abnormal phobias in a surreal way. I was researching the effects of cacophobia and thought that it would have more of an impact on the viewer as a film rather than a photograph. The music and the concept fit so well together, and I couldn’t help but make the video slightly Twilight Zone-esque.

How much experience have you had as a film maker?

I actually have no experience working with film, or film editing. The primary reason why I began photography was so that I could segway into the film world. At first, I started creating stop motions simply because I did not have a video camera. But I came to love it because it is so versatile — virtually nothing is impossible when you create stop motions.

Do you have future plans to go into film?

If I have the chance, my dream job would be a music video director or a creative/commercial director for an advertising agency. However, I am also considering becoming a surgeon for the United States Army — I was inspired by my cousin who volunteers heavily for the Walter Reed Medical Center and the stories of shortages of doctors in the army sector definitely struck a chord with me. For the men and women who sacrifice their lives to help us, they deserve someone to help them in their time of need.

What do you fear the most?

My biggest fear is not having enough time.

Thanks Elizabeth for letting us interview you!

Here are some more links to articles featuring Color by Elizabeth Quinn

We love to hear stories about Zinch users overcoming obstacles and bettering their life, especially if there is an opportunity for us to help them.  Recently, Binghamton University’s local paper, Pipe Dream, featured one of their students, Jade Maniscalco, as a participant in the March Madnezz competition. Spending most of her years without a home, dealing with her parents’ divorce, and now trying to pay off student loans, Jade is hoping to at least make it to the Cinderella 6 with her Facebook fan page.  Good Luck Jade! Keep inviting like crazy!

Hey Zinchers,

Regionals have begun! We want to congratulate all 1,000 students for continuing on to the regionals round.  We also want to remind you that now is when the competition starts to really heat up. Only 58 of the 1,000 students (and the Cinderella 6) will continue to the Final 64 bracket.  So if you didn’t make it to Regionals check out the rules for the Cinderella 6 and start at it! If you did make it, make sure you get out the masses to vote because now is when it counts more then ever!

Remember regionals lasts from March 9th to March 16th so get out there and start voting!

Good luck to everyone!

I am a pretty big advocate of using Youtube videos to advertise for your competitive cause because I managed to make one that helped me out a lot. I’ve been scoping out a few March Madnezz Youtube videos lately, and so far, these are my top 5!

#5. [Taylor Schutte]

I don’t want to give too much away, but there is a banjo, a Denver Broncos banner, and a Seattle Mariners hat. Okay - so, maybe it’s not the most epic thing ever made, but it definitely gets the point across: we all need to save our money for college. Taylor, I have a sneaking suspicion you are spending a lot of your savings on Muscle Milk. (I want your biceps, please.)

#4. [Andrew Hebert]
What do we have here? A skinny white kid in a Mickey Mouse shirt and a fitted cap without money trying to go to film school? Sounds like most of the hipster crowd here in Austin! Just kidding - Mr. Hebert has photographic proof that he’s had a passion for making art with moving pictures for a very, very long time, so definitely check him out.

#3. [Sarah Jenson]
I’ve been to Ace’s Hardware Store, and it’s a pretty miserable place, so consider voting for Sarah Jenson if for no other reason than to help her escape those gilded walls. The editing work in this video is also pretty snappy, with Sarah changing outfits more often than some college students do in a week. (Seriously. It’s a scary thing. Just warning you before you get here.)

#2. [Annie Hu]
I imagine that in the near future, Annie will be famous for pioneering some bizarre sport that somehow smoothly integrates the making of cute signs, tennis, golf, skiing, violin, and electronic music into one monolithic tribute to Asian hegemony. I imagine it would look something like this video.

#1. [Kathryn Buncik]
I’m not very good at following instructions, so I appreciate it when people tell me step-by-step what to do, especially in a soothing female tone - reminds of kindergarten, when the most stressful project was adding up all the paper play change so that it would equal 57 cents. When I was a competitor, I noticed that the easier you made the process to follow, the more likely people would actually follow through, rather than just exiting out of the window. So, Kathryn Buncik, photographer who dreams of attending Union University, daps and pounds to you for being my current #1 Youtube video. You can see her Zinch page for more information on her, or check out her Wordpress at Kathryn Lynn Photography.

To all of you other March Madnezz competitors - step your game up! These videos are nifty, sure, but I know there’s enough talent in the field to completely blow me away. Don’t make me make another video to show you how it ought to be done!

As usual, good luck to all competitors. Keep spamming your friends’ Facebook inboxes, overloading e-mail servers, filling up IM windows, and mashing F5 on your vote count pages. It’s all part of the hustle!

As March Madnezz continues we here at Zinch wanted to highlight some of the fantastic talents and effort that has been put forward by the students participating in this years Sweet Diggity Dawg Scholarship Contest.  The following are some of the exceptional talent that we have noticed. Enjoy!

Images

Videos

by Juan P.

by Tiesha M.

Writing

What Is Poetry by Sara U.

Better by Blair W.

Confusion by Karim H.

Audio

Battle’s of Life by Sarah S.

Just For Your Love by Keith L.

Fantaisie Pastorale Hongroise by Albert Franz Doppler performed by Jenny L.

Miscellaneous

Daniel O’Connor has made a website to help ease the pain of going off to college.  Check out http://WhatToTakeToCollege.com/!  We are amazed at the number of students that are stretching their limits to submit better works of art to this years competition.  We are happy to see that we are inspiring students to stretch themselves. For example, Kathryn Buncik has posted on her photography blog that she is going to make a stop motion film to submit for the Cinderella 6.  We can’t wait to see it!

Keep voting for the best talent out there. Only a few more days until Regionals. Good luck to everyone!

There has also been some questions about the Advancement of the 1,000 students to Regionals.  Here is a list of every State Bucket with the number of kids in each and how many of those students will advance from that Bucket. Hope this clarifies.