May 8, 2025
East Ridge High’s Leo Perez Casatellanos wins National PSA Award for Mental Health Awareness
By Kyle Coppola
East Ridge High’s Leo Perez Casatellanos wins National PSA Award for Mental Health Awareness
CLERMONT, Fla. — Leo Perez Castellanos, a junior at East Ridge High School, has been named the 2025 National Technical Winner of The Greatest Save Teen PSA Contest, a prestigious nationwide competition that highlights impactful public service announcements created by students.
Leo’s winning PSA focuses on promoting acceptance and understanding of individuals living with schizophrenia, a hereditary and genetic mental health disorder. His project combined advanced video editing, audio production, and animation to deliver a compelling message encouraging empathy and awareness.
(Leo’s PSA hopes to bring awareness about people living with the mental disorder of Schizophrenia.)
Though his PSA finished second in Florida’s popular vote, Leo’s peers selected it to move forward to the national technical judging round. There, a panel of professional television producers and television production educators from across the country awarded his project the highest technical score in the nation.
“We are incredibly proud of Leo’s creativity, work ethic, and dedication to making a difference,” said officials at East Ridge High School. “His message is powerful, and his talent is undeniable.”
Leo’s national recognition underscores the strength of student voices in promoting mental health awareness and using multimedia to inspire change.
Take a look at his PSA here: https://vimeo.com/1070874136?share=copy#t=0
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
