Lisa Scott
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 09/04) - It took a trip to Ottawa and the envy of other Canadian students before four Yellowknife teens realized the gold mine of opportunity within their own school.

The four Sir John Franklin high school Grade 11 students returned from Ottawa, March 24, with two of the 10 national awards for the Racism: Stop it! video competition sponsored by the government of Canada.

The double win could be called coincidental if the school hadn't snagged two wins last year as well.

The students recounted the positive feedback over their 30-second anti-racism videos, something they didn't expect to hear from other contestants."I never really thought people would be impressed with what we have," says Miranda Booth, referring to the course that spawned the amateur filmmakers.

Miranda Booth and Morgan Barrett are a double threat two years running. The duo won for their French video called "Regarde a l'interieur," and won for an English clip in 2003.

Fellow Grade 11 students Chris Dipasquale and Kyle Bevan won for their video "It all starts with you."

Media studies teacher Arnold Krause is modest about the growth of the course, which really took off when he joined the school seven years ago.

The school even has a news team doing weekly broadcasts.