Today, I attended the Academy Awards. Not the Hollywood ones you’re familiar with, but they were special nonetheless.

Over the past few months students at the Media Academy at Crenshaw High School in downtown Los Angeles created public service announcements for the 2010 Census. I had the pleasure of meeting these students who put so much hard work into developing a concept and then filming the message. They produced 7 Public Service Announcements; all different, all conveying the importance of the census.

Our partner agencies have placed them on their websites, for all to see. We held an awards ceremony at the school this morning to honor the PSAs for “Best Message,” “Best Creative, Editing and Production,” “Best Use of Language to Reach Hard to Count Communities” and “Best Overall.” I was joined by California former acting Lt. Governor Mona Pasquil and representatives from the Urban League and Disney.

It was a lot of fun to see the students who worked so hard on this program. Their parents were justifiably beaming with joy. Some of the awardees were shy and reserved – not at all like the Hollywood awardees. We didn’t have a problem of cutting off their “thank you” speeches.

This contest was just another example of how crucial the partner outreach success is to the quality of the 2010 census.

I thank all the students who competed in the program.

Director Robert Groves