High school student animates her way to bronze at provincials

MEDICINE HAT AB- When Sierra Hill, a grade 10 student at Crescent Heights High School was pulled into her mom’s office and told she won a bronze medal for animation, she could hardly believe it.

“I was kind of in shock, I didn’t really believe it. I worked really hard to make the animation so it was great the see the payoff,” she said.

Hill beat out over 20 competitors from across Alberta as part of the Skills Canada provincial competition.

Exuding shades and yellow and orange, her award-winning piece took two weeks to complete and was inspired by life in quarantine.

“It was kind of warming up by the time I started story boarding so I was stuck inside and I was just looking out the window and seeing how it was getting all green and getting all nice and I was just kind of missing being outside.”

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Her win in 2D animation is a first for the district. It is also monumental as women in animation are a rare find.

“The animation industry is quite male-dominated at this point in time, so I am hoping to change that and bring in more female artists.” Hill said.

Pushing barriers and entering what is widely a male-dominated sector is something that makes Hill’s teacher very proud.

“That’s exactly what I can hope for. Skills Canada actually has every year a huge program just to bring girls in from all over the province because they are underrepresented in technology and science so being a woman in technology myself I really try to foster that in all of my students but also to remind girls that they can do this,” said Donna Armstrong, Multimedia and Communications technology teacher at Crescent Heights High school.

“It just inspires me so much that Sierra understands that and is taking her role in that very seriously and is inspiring others,” said Armstrong.

Armstrong has mentored Hill since grade 7 and was quick to notice her creative flair and technical skills.

“I have hundreds of students over decades and you notice those skills right away,” she said.

After going to provincials a year prior and examining what was involved, Armstrong knew Hill would be a perfect contender.

“I brought back some of that information and went to Sierra and another student and said ‘I think that you guys can do this, and that was last year in grade nine, and I said ‘why don’t you practice with this and we will see how it goes and then maybe next year, I said ‘I have these dreams that you are going to be competing in 2D animation next year so lets see if we can make that happen, and we did’’’’

Hill hopes to further her studies beyond just high school, taking her skills to the post-secondary level and then one day landing with a career.

“It’s my dream job to actually direct animations or even just work on them,” she said.

Appearing on Zoom, and reflecting on her big win alongside her teacher, Hill had this final message for the teacher who gave her the push.

“I’d say it’s been a great experience and again a huge thank-you to you Mrs. Armstrong, I would not have been able to do this without you, and I’m so thankful for your mentorship,”

“She looks out for you and pushes you to do greater and better things that you didn’t even know that you could do,” Hill explained.

The words of appreciation, bringing tears to Armstrong’s eyes.

“I think that’s what you can hope for as an educator is to make a difference in our student’s lives and that then ripples out into the community and I couldn’t be prouder of her,” Armstrong said.