Ontario Association of Broadcasters Presents Award to Sheridan Media Arts Student

James Vorstenbosch, a 3rd-year Media Arts student at Sheridan, was presented with the Michael Monty Award by the Ontario Association of Broadcasters yesterday at its fourth annual Career Development Day held in Toronto.

For Immediate Release: March 10, 2009
Oakville , Ontario

James Vorstenbosch, a 3rd-year Media Arts student at Sheridan, was presented with the Michael Monty Award by the Ontario Association of Broadcasters yesterday at its fourth annual Career Development Day held in Toronto.

The Michael Monty Award is presented to a student who not only achieves high academic marks, but who also makes a difference by getting involved in extracurricular activities that benefit fellow students.

Vorstenbosch is an ‘A’ student who showed tremendous initiative in his first year of the Media Arts program by establishing the M.A.F.I.A. (Media Arts and Fundamentals Integrated Alliance), a student organization that meets weekly. The group has approximately 200 members, and the weekly meetings range from hosting key industry speakers, running workshops on various technical aspects of filmmaking, film screenings and discussions, lectures by faculty, and establishing mentor relationships between older and younger students.

"I have yet to witness a student more willing to shoulder responsibility in order to improve another student’s experience and learning," says Lynn Bell, Coordinator of the Media Arts program. "In spite of volunteering countless hours towards the M.A.F.I.A., James maintains his 4.0 grade point average and, beyond that, produces films that attest to his creativity, technical proficiency and his desire to simultaneously entertain and educate his audiences."

After he graduates this spring, Vortensbosch hopes to find employment in the film industry while developing his own independent production company, Ario Films. He also plans to continue networking with students and fellow filmmakers, and plans "to dedicate some serious time to the online networking and resource utility for student/amateur filmmakers I’ve been developing called FilmArmy.ca."

As a student, Vortensbosch says "I have enjoyed every minute of the Media Arts program. The most valuable thing for me was the mentorship I’ve received from the faculty. They are such a diverse group of industry professionals who have given my class and myself so much insight and working knowledge of the industry."

The Michael Monty Award comes with a $500.00 cash prize, which Vortensbosch plans to put towards financing special editions of his third year film project and submitting it to various film festivals.