Elmhurst Students Win Prize In C-SPAN Documentary Competition

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst students at Homeschool Trinity have won an honorable mention prize in C-SPAN's national 2018 StudentCam competition. Joe Couri, Teresa Jansen and Sean Wool will receive $250 for their documentary, "I Voted Today," about voter ID laws and the 15th Amendment, the organization said.

According to a release, each year since 2006, C-SPAN partners with its local cable television providers in communities nationwide to invite middle school students (grades 6-8) and high school students (grades 9-12) to produce short documentaries about a subject of national importance. This year students addressed the theme, “The Constitution & You: Choose a provision of the U.S. Constitution and create a video illustrating why it's important to you."

"With so much national debate about government power and personal freedoms, we were eager to hear students' perspectives on what the Constitution means to them," C-SPAN's Manager of Education Relations Craig McAndrew said in a release. "Students across the country engaged in conversation on the local level with elected officials, experts, community leaders and educators to explore how national issues impact their daily lives."

The Elmhurst winners are among more than 300 students 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, according to a release.

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, the organization said.

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