Fast Friends Team Up with Winning Video

If anyone ever tells you friendship doesn't pay off, tell them the story of Pavitra Abraham and Corey Pinchoff.

The two met while working on this year's musical, . Abraham, a senior, was stage manager, and Pinchoff, a junior, signed on as her assistant.

"Working together, we became really close friends," Abraham said. So much so that when she decided to put together a video project for C-SPAN's StudentCam video competition, "I knew I wanted to do it with Corey."

On a suggestion from teacher and TV-10 adviser Dean Cobb, Abraham decided to document her experience at Girls Nation, an event sponsored by the American Legion to give students a hands-on education about the federal government. There's a similar program at the state level, which she also attended.

The prompt for the competition was "Washington, DC – Through My Lens." Abraham wanted people to see our nation's capital as she had, to dispel the very common idea that Washington is completely broken and doesn't work.

"I wanted to talk about my experience," she said. "I wanted to prove to people that's not true."

Unfortunately, because they decided to enter late, the girls had just two weeks to finish the project. Cobb helped them create a structure for the project; in addition to Abraham's photos, they did interviews with teachers and Abraham's mother and filmed things around school that fit, Pinchoff said. They also had access to film clips from C-SPAN.

Despite the late start, they turned in the project a week early. And while it didn't place in the national competition, the video won local honors, which came with $1,000 for TV-10 and $1,000 for the team to split, delivered Thursday by Leigh Byrd of cable company Bright House Networks.

But both students said they got something more out of the experience.

"Going to the camp, I was thrilled," Abraham said. "The whole week there was such an eye-opening experience. This project gave me some closure. It allowed me to organize my thoughts (about Girls Nation) and use them."

"This is the first time I edited something that felt like it was more than 'this is just a cool video,' " said Pinchoff, who has been editing video since she was in seventh grade. "I really felt like we made something that will make a difference."

Abraham and Pinchoff have already determined that part of their winnings will pay for smoothies with friends who contributed to the project. And Abraham wants to get an iPhone before she leaves for the University of Michigan this fall.

She's majoring in political science — because she wants to be a United States senator someday.

How cool is that?