With the deadline fast approaching, Sondria Pemberton, a junior at the University of the Virgin Islands, is one of seven finalists in a national, online competition and is hoping a late surge of voters from the territory will lift her over the top.
Pemberton is about 700 votes short of the lead in Sprint’s "4G Competitive Edge Filmmaker Challenge," in which college students were invited to shoot and produce a short film about the advantages of 4G service in a variety of creative forms using a 4G-enabled smart phone.
4G refers to the fourth generation of telecommunications technology.
The deadline for voting is 11:59 p.m. EDT Monday. People are allowed to vote once every 24 hours.
Those wanting to vote can visit the website, http://www.4gcompetitiveedge.com. Pemberton’s movie title is "Sprint 4G Saves Tropical Day.".
The two entries receiving the highest vote total will receive $2,500 each. The students who created them will be flown to Los Angeles where they will have lunch with Matt Carter, president of Sprint 4G, and Golden Globe-nominatd actor actor Indris Elba, of Tyler Perry’s "Daddy’s Little Girls."
The contest was opened to all university and college students across the nation through the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
Pemberton noted her fellow finalists come from schools with large student populations, and she hopes the territory will log on to support her.
"I am confident that with the help of the supportive community, this obstacle could be overcome and sufficient amount of votes can be gained. The quality of my movie is superior,” she said in an e-mail.
Pemberton urged the community to spread this information to their e-mail contacts as well as Facebook page statuses and Twitter.
“Upon winning, with the help of the community, I will inform the Sprint executive that 4G service and more coverage is needed in the Virgin Islands.”
