San Ramon Middle School Student Documentary Receives National Recognition

Announcement submitted by San Ramon Valley Unified School District:

C-SPAN today announced that Gale Ranch Middle School 6th grader Sanjana Ranganathan’s video “Impact on the community from the sugar sweetened drinks tax” was one of 150 documentaries nationwide to receive recognition as part of the annual C-SPAN StudentCam competition.

Ranganathan’s project will receive $250 as an Honorable Mention. Her project is the only documentary in Contra Costa County and one of seven documentaries from the Bay Area to place in the StudentCam competition.

Her video captures the debate and multiple perspectives on the subject of sugar sweetened drinks tax. This tax was recently passed for the first time in the nation at Berkeley, CA.

C-SPAN will recognize Ranganathan at a ceremony at 8:45 a.m. on March 23 at Gale Ranch Middle School. Following the ceremony, students will be invited to tour the C-SPAN Bus.

The national competition, now in its 11th year, invites middle school (grades 6-8) and high school students (grades 9-12) to produce a five- to- seven minute documentary on a national policy issue.

Students were asked to answer the question, “The Three Branches and You: tell a story that demonstrates how a policy, law, or action by either the executive, legislative, or judicial branch has affected you or your community.” In response, C-SPAN received 2,280 video submissions from almost 5,000 students in 45 states and Washington.

Documentaries were judged by a panel of C-SPAN education representatives and evaluated 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.

These winners are among 347 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 at http://www.studentcam.org/winners15.htm.

Video embed, screenshot courtesy of Viddler