FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2010
New York, NY - Sports Illustrated announced the winners of the 2011 contest for it's Kids Reporter team. Each year, Sports Illustrated conducts a contest looking for the most talented young reporters throughout the country. This year twelve young students were chosen from diverse areas the United States. Each contestant were required to submit videos and written material. ((The initial group of contestants consisting of almost 2,000 was reduced to 119 based on the original entries. SI Kids then narrowed the finalists down from 119 to 17)). The 17 finalists were asked to submit a video explaining "Why I Want to be a Kid Reporter." From this group, the 12 winners were chosen.
In the past year, SI's Kid Reporters have gone to the NFL Draft, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, tennis’s U.S. Open, and a photo shoot with the top NBA rookies. (Check out their work at SIKIDS.com/KidReporter.)
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This year, Adam Apsan, a local Bergen county student at Eric S. Smith Middle School in Ramsey, NJ, was chosen and will become an integral part of the Sports Illustrated Kids Reporter Team for 2011. As Adam put it " Now that I am an official Sports Illustrated Kid Reporter, I hope to take my first steps toward my ultimate goal of becoming a movie producer." Adam, however, is not new to reporting. In fact since the age of 12 he has been working as the junior reporter for www.vejatv.com, a media-sharing site that has its own daily news and show called “America Legal.” Vejatv.com is considered to be the preeminent webTV for the Brazilians living in the United States. Adam as a member of the ”America Legal Show” has interviewed many interesting people such as Tony Kanaan, a Brazilian race car who won the 2004 Indy Racing League Indy Car, Heloisa Alves, Miss Brasil USA 2007, Felix Augustin, the Ambassador of Haiti, Chief of Police of Newark, NJ, Mayor JM Bober, the mayor of Hollywood Florida, Hon. Mayor Poitier, of Deerfield Beach, George Moreira at Red Bull soccer team's final game at Giants Stadium; just to name a few.
In 2009 Adam won the Golden Medal at the Camp Woodward's Film Premiere. The event occurred at the Woodward Camp for Extreme Sport, Woodward Pennsylvania. He interviews the Pro's of Xtreme sports and created a unique video. Jamie Bestwick, the Best BMX vert player in the world, interviewed Adam and he interviewed others. See the video.
This summer Adam attended the New York Film Academy in New York City. There he wrote and starred in his first short film called Detention Getaway. Two students attempt to get out of school detention. See the video.
Joao Vianna, executive director of the site vejatv.com, commented that “when I met Adam he was only 12 years old, but had a great command of the English language and had the ability to speak to people of all ages on most any topic. At a Miss Brasil USA show, we discovered that many of the young women could not speak Portuguese correctly and preferred to be interviewed in English. Looking around, I realized that I had no English-speaking reporters at the event. Taking a shot in the dark, I asked Adam if he would like to try an interview with a contestant. Adam accepted the challenge and interviewed some ten contestants that night. The rest is history. Adam has been our junior reporter since that day. He makes a job that is very stressful look very easy. He requires little preparation and is capable of creating new questions based on the answers given. We, at vejatv.com, are very pleased that Adam’s talents have been discovered. At Sports Illustrated I believe, Adam will blossom and grow to become a professional reporter.”
Adam commented that "when I first began interviewing I was quite nervous and did not listen to answers given, but now, from the answers, I am able to create new questions to gain a better understanding of who is the person being interviewed. By doing this I have been gaining a greater perspective on the different careers and future a student can have. All a student he has to do is believe that he can do it and if he gives his best effort, he will succeed."
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For more information contact Joao Vianna at Vejatv.com - 201-248-3935