March Madnezz Blog

Make sure to subscribe to get all the Zinch March Madness updates and announcements.

feedburner

Current Feed Content

  • Champion of Champions: Kiley Gunter

    Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:31:33 +0000

    This years March Madnezz competition was the fiercest yet. We were extremely impressed with the amount of talent and determination. We commend each and every participant for an incredible job well done! But when all is said and done there can only be one winner. This year’s winner of the Sweet Diggity Dawg Zinch Scholarship and recepient of $20,000 is Kiley Gunter! Congratulations Kiley! We applaud your diligence, hard work, and talent. We would like to highlight Farrah Bui trailing Kiley by only 2%! Great job Farrah!

    Here is our winners bio:
    Hi I’m Kiley! I’m pursuing a career in nursing. Having dealt with chronic migraines the past two years, I know what it feels like when doctors stare at you like you’re wasting their time. Health care should not be like that. I want to do all I can to ensure that future patients don’t feel the misunderstanding and loneliness that I felt in my doctors’ offices. I look forward to treating real human beings with their own hopes and dreams, not just numbers on the way to a paycheck. But until then, I’m focusing on enjoying senior year and preparing for nursing school at UCLA in the fall. (:

    Here are a few questions Kiley has answered and highlighted on her profile:

    Why do you deserve this scholarship?
    I work hard. I play hard. And I like to laugh. But really, I know a lot of Zinch users that work hard judging off their profile. So while I do know I deserve this scholarship, I know a lot of people on Zinch also deserve this scholarship. I’m going to give it my best shot, and we’ll see what happens! And a fun fact, I gave up Facebook for Lent, and Facebook was the main way I communicated in the first round. I made this decision before I received the semi-finalist email, and once I realized how I was limiting myself in the competition I was REALLY tempted to give up something else. But I didn’t! I stuck to the commitment I had made to God and myself, further proof that I don’t go back on my word when things seem less than ideal. (:
    If you could have dinner with 3 people (dead or alive), who would it be and why?
    Mary the mother of Jesus, because she’s so incredibly interesting. Talk about a strong individual. When Jewish society turned her away because it appeared that she had sinned, she kept going knowing in her heart what was right. That’s just awesome. William Jennings Bryan, because my APUSH teacher last year always called him his favorite loser. Seriously, that guy ran for elections so many times! I think it would be great to hear his perspective on what was perceived as failure and how he dealt with it. And a stranger, because I love getting to know people. That would be an incredible dinner party.
    If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?
    It would for sure be the ability to start and stop time. That way, I would be able to get everything done that I need to during the day, and still sleep as much as I want! It would be the most amazing thing ever.
    If you had a million dollars and you had to spend it on yourself, what would you do?
    College tuition! Yeah yeah yeah! And probably a few shopping excursions thrown in there too. (:
    If you could change one thing in history, what would it be and why?
    Oh that’s a toughie. You know, I don’t think I would change anything. Although the first thing that popped into my head was the Crusades. While there have certainly been a lot of unfortunate occurrences in this world, I know if I were to change something, there would be a bunch of unforeseen consequences. At least that’s what all the movies about time travel seem to conclude.

    And here is video Kiley made for this years competition:

    Again Congratulations Kiley!

    And thanks to everyone that participated in this years March Madnezz!

  • Musical Faceoff!

    Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:47:53 +0000

    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!

  • A Tribute To Hardwork and Dedication

    Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:45:04 +0000

    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

  • March Madnezz Competition Heats Up!

    Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:24:05 +0000

    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.

  • The Cinderella 6

    Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:55:21 +0000

    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!

  • Zinchers In The Media…

    Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:14:52 +0000

    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

    Congratulations to the both of you and we wish you the best of luck in the March Madnezz Compeition!
  • Highlighting A Hero

    Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:47:00 +0000

    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!

  • Regionals Have Begun!

    Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:36:49 +0000

    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!

  • Build your YouTube hype.

    Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:31:57 +0000

    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!

  • March Madnezz Talent

    Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:49:42 +0000

    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.

    State Bucket Count Advance
    Alabama 38 15
    Alaska 7 3
    Arizona I 46 18
    Arizona II 46 18
    Arkansas 25 10
    California I 56 22
    California II 56 22
    California III 56 22
    California IV 56 22
    California V 56 22
    California VI 56 22
    Colorado 48 19
    Connecticut 28 11
    Delaware 8 4
    District of Columbia 3 2
    Florida I 45 18
    Florida II 45 18
    Florida III 45 18
    Florida IV 45 18
    Georgia I 40 16
    Georgia II 40 16
    Hawaii 11 5
    Idaho 15 6
    Illinois I 57 23
    Illinois II 57 23
    Indiana 52 21
    International 45 18
    Iowa 21 9
    Kansas 30 12
    Kentucky 33 13
    Louisiana 29 12
    Maine 7 3
    Maryland I 36 14
    Maryland II 36 14
    Massachusetts 41 16
    Michigan I 36 14
    Michigan II 35 14
    Minnesota 32 13
    Mississippi 20 8
    Missouri 28 11
    Montana 7 3
    Nebraska 16 7
    Nevada 22 9
    New Hampshire 8 4
    New Jersey 51 19
    New Mexico 14 6
    New York I 47 19
    New York II 46 18
    New York III 46 18
    North Carolina I 33 13
    North Carolina II 33 13
    North Dakota 3 2
    Ohio I 31 12
    Ohio II 31 12
    Oklahoma 27 11
    Oregon 31 12
    Pennsylvania I 44 18
    Pennsylvania II 44 18
    Rhode Island 7 3
    South Carolina 37 15
    South Dakota 6 3
    Tennessee 32 13
    Texas I 44 18
    Texas II 44 18
    Texas III 44 18
    Texas IV 43 17
    Texas V 43 17
    Utah 28 11
    Vermont 5 2
    Virginia I 31 12
    Virginia II 31 12
    Washington 53 21
    West Virginia 12 5
    Wisconsin 35 14
    Wyoming 5 2
    Totals: 2,500 1,000