Winners Of CSPAN's Student Documentary Competition To Be Honored

ROCKVILLE, MD - From C-SPAN: CSPAN and Comcast will visit five area schools between March 27-29 to honor local winners for CSPAN’s annual student video documentary competition, StudentCam. During the visit, CSPAN will present a StudentCam certificate of merit to the students during a school-wide ceremony of classmates, teachers and family members to recognize their winning achievements in the
national competition. The winning video will also be viewed during the congratulatory event.

Each year, since 2006, C-SPAN partners with its local cable television providers in communities
nationwide to invite middle and high school students to produce short documentaries about a subject of national importance. This year, students addressed the theme, "What does it mean to be American? Choose a constitutional right, national characteristic, or historic event and explain how it defines the American experience."

In response, a record 6,318 students (a 10 percent increase over 2018) from 48 states and Washington, D.C., participated. The most popular topics among the 2,923 submissions included First Amendment rights (17 percent), equality/discrimination (13 percent) and immigration (9 percent).

EVENTS (press invited):

Wednesday, March 27

9:30am Assembly to honor the winning students at Montgomery Blair High School

Address: 51 University Blvd. E, Silver Spring, MD 20901

The following Montgomery Blair student group is a second prize winner and will receive $1,500 for their documentaries:

• Hunter Walterman, Isaac Newman and Rekha Leonard for "Rockin in the Free World" about
  music and the American experience. This video will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day on April 16.

The following student groups are third prize winners and will each receive $750 for their documentaries:

• Rebecca Santangelo, Emilie Vigliotta and Amina King for "An Inclusive America," about an
  integration of students with disabilities.
• Lila Chafe and Frances O'Connor for "Teaching the Dream," about the education system.
• Che Moorhead, Charles Thrush and Will Thorne for "Butterfly: The Red Line Around America ," about institutionalized racism.

The following student groups are honorable mention winners and will each receive $250 for their
documentaries:

• Isabelle Megosh, Anna Orzulak and Lilia Wong for "Fighting for Those Who Fought" about the Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Robert Padmore, Natan Kimelman-Block and Avi Kedia for "Disobedience in the Capitol," about protesting.
• Amanda Rutledge and Kiran Kochar McCabe for "The Disposable Youth: The Problems with Foster Care"
• Anna Fisher Lopez, Maren Gibb and Faina Pensy for "Gagged: The Worldwide Impact of the Global Gag Rule"
• Liv Dussere, Maddie Martin and Tess Williams for "The Plastic Problem" about plastic pollution.
• Judith Goldstein, Molly Howard and Nathan Thrush for "A Slogan for the People," about political slogans.
• Allison Swann, Abonie Blount and Katalin Schuffert for "Funding Our Future: Inequities in Public Education"
• Jordan McAuliff, Abby Kusmin and Bristol Glasgow for "The Perfect Storm: How Hurricane Maria Blew Away the Illusion of Puerto Rican Equality"
• Priya Moorjani and Dhruv Pai for "We Are" about immigration and American culture.

Thursday, March 28

9 a.m. Assembly to honor winning students at Richard Montgomery High School
Address: 250 Richard Montgomery Dr., Rockville, MD 20852

The following Richard Montgomery student groups are honorable mention winners and will each receive $250 for their documentaries:

• Carina Guo and James Mu for "Crossing the Oceans" about immigration.
• Amanda Wu and Matthew Casertano (he is a student at Montgomery Blair High School) for
  "Disunited States," about political polarization

Thursday, March 28

1:30 p.m.

Assembly to honor winning students at Roberto Clemente Middle School
Address: 18808 Waring Station Road, Germantown, MD 20874

The following student group is a second prize winner and will receive $1,500 for their documentary:

• Aarushi Gupta and Shairee Arora for "Equal Opportunity or the Lack Thereof" This video will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day on April 5.

The following student groups are third prize winners and will each receive $750 for their documentaries:

• Lizette Miranda and Katherine Hong for "Social Media and the First Amendment."
• Aarushi Soni, Anna Li and Emily Duan for "Capitalism: Made for the Wealthy"
• Jake Lee and Brandon Kim for "An American Entrepreneur" about small business and government.

The following student groups are honorable mention winners and will each receive $250 for their
documentaries:

• Srihitha Akula and Tanvi Vaidya for "Protests and Peace: An American Lifestyle"
• Mya Ramamurthi, Aidan Kelley and Brian Hoff for "Who Are We, The People?"
• William Lu and John Engle for "Intrepid: The Fight for Racial Equality"
• Michelle Wong, Desiree Chen and Basmah Elradi for "Gender and Equality: The Pay Gap Today"
  

Friday, March 29
8:25 a.m. Assembly to honor winning students at Eastern Middle School
Address: 300 University Blvd. E, Silver Spring, MD 20901

The following student group is a First prize winner and will receive $3,000 for their documentary:

•  Ida Chen and Hana Lee for "McAmerica: America Runs on Fast Food." This video will air April 7.

The following student groups are second prize winners and will each receive $1,500 for their
documentaries:

• Eleanor Pugh, Katherine Gough and Rebecca Meek for "The Youth Ballot: Lowering the Voting Age" This video will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day on April 9.
• Allison Fan and Kaitlyn Li for "The Gender Wage Gap." This video will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day on April 13.

The following student groups are third prize winners and will each receive $750 for their documentaries:

• Ada Fiala, Allison Howlett and Samantha Wu for "Healthcare: Right or Privilege?"
• Katie Moorer, Njandee Murangi and Avani Ambardekar for "Taking a Stand by Taking a Knee "

The following student groups are honorable mention winners and will each receive $250 for their
documentaries:

• Angelica Frude and Naomi Scissors for "Indivisible: The Pledge of Allegiance and Its
  Controversy"
• Norah Lesperance, Saskia Mahar-Piersma and Avery Marra for "All One Voice" about
  mandatory voting.
• Josh Greenbaum, Sammy Gallun and Vishal Jain for "The Bouquet "about diversity and
  immigration.
• Aisling Gearhart, Vanessa Turner and Eleanor Mieremet for "Felon Disenfranchisement: An American Justice Controversy."
• Samuel Desai, Christian Testa and Theo Topolewski for "Changing Climate Changing Nation "
• Gwendolyn Taylor, Chloe Motsebo and Isabella Kreidler for "The Cost of College"
• Clara McClintock, Georgia Bardi and Gillian Stingley for "Maintaining Religious Freedom in America."
• Lydia Yeh, Paris Ye and Avery Wang for "The Problem's Not You, It's Fast Food ," about the effects of fast foods on low income
• Elizabeth Cooke, Charlotte Foster and Evelyn Shue for "What Defines "American" Patriotism or Papers? "
• Agata Czaja, Joanna Li and Eileen Luo for "9/11: A Catalyst for Patriotism"
• Fisher Mallon and Elyas Laubach for "Solitary Confinement: Lawful Torture"

Friday, March 29
1 p.m. Assembly to honor winning students at Poolesville High School
Address: 17501 Willard Road, Poolesville, MD 20837

The following student groups are honorable mention winners and will each receive $250 for their
documentaries:

• Naomi Cocker, Sanna Moore and Charlotte Vogel for "American Values: Freedom of the Press "
• Ava Checkan, Angela Engel and Alison Wang for "Choice, Convenience, Cost: Fast Food in
  America ."

"Congratulations to all our local winners on their hard work, creativity and well-deserved recognition,” said Jessica Gappa, Director of Community Impact, Comcast’s Beltway Region. “Comcast is committed to strengthening our communities through educational programs and digital media initiatives, and we are proud to partner with C-SPAN in its mission to encourage students to continue to pursue additional educational opportunities.”

In Montgomery County, C-SPAN programming is provided by Comcast as a commercial-free public service and can be seen on channel 2 and HD 941; C-SPAN2 on channel 104 and HD 942; and C-SPAN3 on channel 105 and on the web at C-SPAN.org. Funding for C-SPAN operations, including Bus visits, is provided by cable and satellite TV providers.