Yellowknife (Mar 19/03) - Four Sir John Franklin high school students are making their mark on the television circuit.

Grade 10 students Miranda Booth and Morgan Barrett and Grade 11 students Vickie Budgell and Becca Pitre's two anti-racism videos made the top 10 list for the federal government's annual Racism. Stop It! national video competition.

The annual competition is open to students ages 12 to 18. The video must be between 60 and 90 seconds and should represent thoughts on eliminating racism and discrimination.

Booth and Barrett's video "The Dictionary" featured a poem by Barrett about tolerance and cultural diversity.

Budgell and Pitre, meanwhile, chose a simpler format. They entered three videos, all with a similar message: essentially, we are all the same. They used eggs and jam covered bread to illustrate their point.

"We wanted to do something simple," said Budgell, adding they had a lot of ideas to work from.

"I think we had a really strong message in the end."

"Music was a real stumbling block," said Budgell, who chose to use an electric keyboard for the original tunes. Both videos take a pro-active approach to dealing with racism. Barrett felt that although there may be some racism at Sir John, she felt overall the school's cultural diversity helps foster a culture of understanding.

"Making the videos really opened my eyes to what's really out there," she said.

As two of the top 10 winners from coast to coast, the girls won two Panasonic Digital Palmcorders for the school and a trip to Ottawa.

With the exception of Booth, who will be on another school trip to France, the students are in Ottawa this week to attend the awards ceremony, tour CBC studios and see the Parliament buildings.

The videos will be shown on MuchMusic and CBC Northbeat as part of International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Friday.