This has been quite a summer for Jasmine Jenkinson.
In June, the 18-year-old Midland student received the University of Toronto’s National Scholarship, which includes four years of room, board and tuition while she studies theatre and drama.
And now, the graduating Georgian Bay District Secondary School student has won a $5,000 university scholarship through a North America-wide music remix competition supported by recording artist Pharrell Williams.
“I am so excited about it,” Jenkinson said. “The competition itself was just amazing ... just to learn about coding and to get to spread a message through music. So the award is icing on the cake.”
Jenkinson, 18, was selected as one of five winners in ‘Your Voice is Power,’ a competition in which students were challenged to use computer coding skills to remix Williams’ hit song Entrepreneur. ‘Your Voice is Power’ was designed to teach coding skills while encouraging students to voice their opinions on the importance of racial justice. The other four winners are from the United States.
Jenkinson’s entry was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and her reaction to the social injustices experienced by George Floyd and the Black community. Her entry included audio clips from news broadcasts of Black Lives Matter protests, which added a sense of reality and urgency.
“It was in World Cultures class that I took last semester,” Jenkinson said, referring to where she first started working on the project. “I was working through the modules of the competition and you know, learning about racism and entrepreneurship and the idea came to me that I needed to make my song about Black Lives Matter to spread the important message.”
She chose to create a melody and record herself singing Williams’ lyrics to show that her own voice has power, and that anybody can use their voice to make a positive difference in the world.
“I started with the bridge,” she said. “And I knew that I wanted to incorporate news clips from protests in the past year.
“And then from there, I kind of worked backwards and figured out the beginning of my song. The entire process from start to finish took me about two months.”
The competition was a joint initiative of Amazon Future Engineer, a program designed to inspire, educate, and prepare children and young adults from underrepresented and underserved communities to pursue computer science; YELLOW, the education equity nonprofit founded by Williams; and the Georgia Institute of Technology, whose EarSketch coding program was used by participants.
As for her university studies, which start next month, Jenkinson said she’ll be splitting her time between the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus and Sheridan College where she’ll take acting lessons.
(Jenkinson's winning entry is attached.)
