Sean Briare has been a world traveler since age 6, which has given him not only a lifetime of experiences but also a ton of video footage.
For his creativity, effort and enthusiasm, Sean—a high school junior from Clackamas, Oregon—was selected as the winner of EF's student video contest. As the grand-prize winner, Sean will receive an iPod Touch. Check out EF's student photo contest winners: Donnie Morrow, who won the destination competition; and Kayla Bess, who won the friends competition.
Sean first heard about EF's video contest from his father, William, who is a longtime EF Group Leader. Sean always joins his father on tour, so he knew he had a lot of experiences to draw upon.
"I have probably been on about 10 EF tours," Sean said. "I have been to England (twice), France, Italy, Greece, Mexico, China, Thailand, Spain, Portugal, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and I think that is all I can remember off the top of my head. I have been going on these trips either every summer or every other summer since I was 6."
All of those tours have created a lot of memorable moments.
"One of my favorite memories was when I was in Ireland and my
cousin and I were at a park just kicking a soccer ball around," Sean said. "These
two kids about our age came, and we played a game against them for a
good hour. It was so much fun. Riding elephants in Thailand was another
great memory too, and my trip to China was another great experience."
Sean—who plays guitar and also loves to play soccer and sing in the school choir—just needed to find a way to connect all of his great content to create a fun and memorable video.
"My idea came from thinking about how I could incorporate my travel experiences but also make the video so EF could use it as a video to get students to go on their tours," Sean said. "Most of the footage was shot by me, but I never thought I could use it in a video contest. There are about five or six countries that I included in my video because those countries had the most pictures and film footage available for my use. The editing process probably took about 12 hours or longer. I spent many Sunday afternoons working on the project to get it how I wanted it and am very happy with how it turned out.
"When I read the email saying I had won, I was so excited! I called my dad and told him I won, and he said nice job. I still am excited that I won."
Where is Sean going next? He's joining his father, who is leading a trip next summer to Africa—"my senior graduation gift, which I am pretty excited for."
