San Ramon Student Wins Prize in C-Span Competition

From C-Span: C-SPAN announced that Sanjana Ranganathan, a student at Gale Ranch Middle School in San Ramon, California is an honorable mention winner in C-SPAN’s national 2017 StudentCam competition. She will receive $250 for her documentary, “Clicking Forward," about incorporating computer science education in public schools.

Each year, since 2006, C-SPAN partners with local cable affiliates in communities nationwide to invite middle school students (grades 6-8) and high school students (grades 9-12) to produce short documentaries on an issue of national importance. This year, students answered the question, “Your message to Washington: What is the most urgent issue for the new president and Congress to address in 2017?”

In response, C-SPAN received a record 2,903 video submissions from over 5,600 students in 46 states and Washington, D.C. Students worked in teams or as individuals to address a wide range of public policy issues from equality and the economy, to the environment and education.

"With the new president and Congress in office, we wanted to hear from students about public policy issues they would like addressed in 2017," said Craig McAndrew, C-SPAN's Manager of Education Relations. "StudentCam offers young people the opportunity to connect with lawmakers and experts and provides them with a platform to voice their opinions creatively."

The most popular topics chosen by students were equality (16 percent), which included police brutality, racial and gender discrimination, and women's rights, followed by the economy (13 percent) and the environment (11 percent).

C-SPAN is funded by America’s cable television companies, which support StudentCam. In San Ramon, C-SPAN is available locally through Comcast.

"Comcast is honored to partner with C-SPAN on their annual documentary contest, StudentCam, and are happy to congratulate local winner Sanjana Ranganathan. Her video tackled an issue that was important to her, her community and our nation after a historic election year. Education is important to Comcast, and we applaud C-SPAN as they continue to offer educational opportunities to young leaders to voice their opinions," said Hank Fore, Regional Senior Vice President, Comcast California.

This winner is among 321 students from across the country winning a total of $100,000, including one grand prize winner, four first prize winners, 16 second prize winners, 32 third prize winners and 97 honorable mentions.

The 150 winning videos may be viewed here and may be used in a broadcast with attribution to C-SPAN. To schedule an interview with one or more winning students or with C-SPAN education staff, please contact Robin Newton, Media Relations Specialist, at rnewton@c-span.org or Pam McGorry, Education Programs Specialist, at pmcgorry@c-span.org

The annual competition is sponsored by the C-SPAN Education Foundation. Videos were evaluated by a panel of educators and C-SPAN representatives based on the thoughtful examination of the competition’s theme, quality of expression, inclusion of varying sides of the documentary’s topic, and effective incorporation of C-SPAN programming.

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