The first stage of the Olympiad took place at the turn of October and November 2016. Twenty-two students from the Zespół Szkół Elektronicznych in Bolesławiec advanced to the regional stage, which was held in Wrocław. Ten people from Lower Silesia advanced to the national final. As it turned out, half of them were female students from “Elektronik”: Lidia Feret, Hanna Druzgała, Małgorzata Bociek, Monika Matuszewska and Wiktoria Jędryczka. The participants were prepared for the Olympiad by Elżbieta Niedźwiecka.
Wiktoria Jędryczka describes what the Warsaw final was like:
We set off for Warsaw early in the morning (unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, only four of us went). After several hours of travelling by train, we entered the Auditorium of the University of Warsaw, where we faced the final test, which, as before, consisted of 40 questions on various topics. Before the results were announced, we had the opportunity to talk to Filip Chajzer, who spoke about the charms of being a journalist and shared many interesting anecdotes. He explained the purpose of journalism to us, as well as all the good and bad sides of working in this profession.
The next guest of the Olympiad, who was there to share the essential secrets of the profession with us, was Filip Springer. He talked about the path he had chosen, his reportage as a whole, and his perception of the world, the media and the country. Both meetings were very interesting; each showed us different aspects of journalistic work that we should take into account when choosing this profession.
When the time came to announce the results, it turned out that Lidia Feret was one of the people honoured with a university admission index.
W. Jędryczka:
But that was not the end—the organisers had planned another attraction for us: a tour of the headquarters of Telewizja Polska on Woronicza Street. It gave us an insight into how films are made, how many people are needed to create a production lasting just a few minutes, and how demanding the work of a filmmaker is. We had the pleasure of visiting both the old building and the new one, which houses the studio of “Pytania na Śniadanie” and the Television Museum. There we saw old cameras, reproductions of old film frames, costumes and props used by filmmakers before the age of technology as we know it today.
For three years, students from ZSE have been winning Olympiads devoted to media education. Two years ago Martyna Rosa (from the class specialising in digital graphic processes) won a university admission index during the National Media Knowledge Olympiad; last year, Wiktoria Jędryczka took second place in the Great Media Education Tournament; and this year, Lidia Feret (both girls are from the same specialisation) won a university admission index at the National Media Knowledge Olympiad.