Old Rochester student's distracted driving video wins $5,000

May 28, 2018

Old Rochester Regional High School senior Michael Sivvianakis' video on the dangers of distracted driving has won him a $5,000 scholarship from Toyota.

Sivvianakis, a Wareham resident, made the video as part of the Toyota TeenDrive 365 Video Challenge. The challenge is a scholarship competition, meant to help students broadcast the dangers of distracted driving.

On May 26, he announced that his video had won the "People's Choice Award," for the video most-liked by members of the public.

Sivvianakis' video focuses on magic—being able to magically teleport your car before an accident occurs might be nice, but in real life, it's not happening.

Sivvianakis said that when he was looking for scholarship opportunities, he found few that suited his talents—until the video scholarship appeared. Sivvianakis had been video editing since sixth grade, he said, and it was something he knew he could do.

He had another, very personal reason for wanting to create a video warning about distracted driving. Sivvianakis' grandfather was killed by a teenager on a cellphone nine years ago, he said.  He wanted to contribute to making students and teenagers aware of the dangers.

Check out Michael Sivvianakis' video, "Magic Won't Help You," below. Video courtesy: Michael Sivvianakis.