MCG students take 1st place with video salute to frontline heroes

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - With their video honoring COVID frontline workers, three med students took first place in a national competition.

The 2021 video, “Stay Inside: A Toast to the Frontline,” is the top winner in the 2023 Memmys, hosted by the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia.

The winner receives $1,500, which in this case, will go to the Augusta University Greenblatt Library. A plaque will also be hung in the library, recognizing the video and honoring frontline workers and their sacrifices during the pandemic.

SEE THE VIDEO

• It was released in March 2021, and as of April 2023, the video has over 41,000 views on YouTube. Watch it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6Jpenvt5yk&t=7s

The project was the brainchild of Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia Class of 2024 students Tyler Beauchamp and Andy Nguyen and Rushay Amarath. They’ll graduate from MCG in May and head to Wellstar Kennestone in Marietta for a transitional year of residency before heading to Emory for a residency in diagnostic radiology.

In all, the video, an optimistic twist on Kanye West’s 2010 hit “Runaway,” took six months to plan, film, produce and edit. It features scenes from around MCG’s campus and Augusta and it includes photos of frontline workers sent in from health care systems, first responders, universities and nonprofits from across the nation.

Back in 2021, News 12 spoke with the students behind the video.

“It’s supposed to make you feel something. It’s supposed to put the things that you can’t put into words into something tangible,” Nguyen said.

Beauchamp said: “There were so many people that were sacrificing in every aspect. Teachers, nurses, doctors, responders — they’re giving it their all.”

The three say that since the beginning of the pandemic, all they’ve wanted to do was help.

“We really wanted to channel that frustration and try to at least share that we understood what was going on,” Amarath said.

Nguyen said: “You were portraying these emotions of being alone, being tired, being exhausted, to let those who are watching know that they’re not alone — we are in it with you.”

Beauchamp says he was getting photos from across the country “from people I wasn’t reaching out to, and they just wanted to be a part of it.”

Amarath says “people across ages, across generations” were sending messages.

“That really made my heart full, and it was beyond what I expected,” he said.

It made them feel that their message was received.

They say out of all the hours spent and all the sleepless nights, if they were able to bring a smile to at least person, then it was all worth it.

… leaving students, families, and all frontline workers with one message: “Thank you.”

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