Rom Barnea

When I was ten, I had one great teacher. That’s all it took to completely change the course of my life.

Soli, if you’re reading this, thank you for putting a camera in my hands. Thank you for letting me use a darkroom to develop my own film and my own light.

Fast forward to today - I still walk around with a camera in hand on most days, and now I get to help kids do the same.

One of the initiatives I’m most proud of is BYkids Academy, a global program focused on teaching kids to find their voice through filmmaking. We ran a few really amazing workshops with kids, some of whom had never held a camera before, in the Dominican Republic and NYC. And we’re expanding to more schools and countries this year (Talk to me if you’d like to co create something like this in your community).

We found out that this work won a Gold Anthem Award (by the Webbys)! next to really impressive people and orgs like Andrew Garfield, Sabrina Carpenter, Sesame Workshop and others. I couldn’t be more proud. Ten year old Rom is proud too.

Huge thanks to the BYkids team and to Holly Carter. You’re the best partner to dream up new projects and to explore ways to help kids express themselves through film!

And do those of you who made it this far in the post, do me a favor - Show BYkids some love and check out their work @bykids

@anthemawards