A number of Philadelphia-area college students have been acknowledged in and acquired awards for his or her work in a C-SPAN documentary movie pageant contest final month.
The annual documentary competitors permits college students to analysis and interview sources on numerous native and nationwide subjects, stated Pam McGorry, an schooling program senior specialist at C-SPAN.
“Yearly, we host this competitors for center faculty and highschool college students, and the objective is to essentially get them desirous about subjects or points which are being talked about throughout the nation,” she stated.
This yr, center and highschool college students have been requested to deal with the theme: “Your Message to the President: What difficulty is most necessary to you or your group?”
McGorry stated the scholars lined all kinds of subjects.
“There’s the local weather and the surroundings, there’s schooling coverage, there’s well being care and all that falls beneath that umbrella,” she stated. “Gun violence was one other subject, and inflation, authorities spending, taxes. So these college students are tackling some fairly robust subjects for center and highschool college students.”
Opponents are capable of take part solo, in pairs or in a bunch of three. All documentaries require college students to make use of numerous C-SPAN information clips and interview sources of their documentaries.
Three Philly-area teams gained prizes for his or her documentaries:
- Ione Saunders, a scholar at Science Management Academy in Philadelphia, is a third-prize winner and can obtain $750 for the 6-minute video “Disappeared in America,” about dependancy in Kensington.
- Desmond Maggione, Nati Roemer-Block and Jai Lapp Yoder, college students at Science Management Academy, are honorable point out prize winners and can obtain $250 for the video “The Battle of Misinformation: Staying Knowledgeable within the Fashionable Age.” Amongst these interviewed is Michael Mullins, the operations director of Unite Right here – a union representing lodge, gaming and meals service employees.
- Matthew Dougherty, Gage Arcaro and Israel Santiago, college students at Central Excessive Faculty, are honorable point out prize winners and can obtain $250 for the video “Undocumented,” about undocumented immigration. These interviewed embrace Phillippe Weisz, the Director of Authorized Affairs at HIAS Pennsylvania, and an undocumented immigrant who doesn’t share their identify.
Localizing huge points
McGorry stated all the Philadelphia space documentary winners succeeded in localizing greater points.
“It was actually fascinating to see how the scholars selected subjects which are being mentioned nationally, however then took it to the native degree,” she stated.
She defined there have been over 1,700 whole entries and three,500 college students who participated within the contest. She stated the entries undergo a number of rounds of judging and the judges on the panel are made up of former classroom academics.
McGorry defined they decide primarily based on makes use of of sources, inventive components, music and inclusion of C-SPAN content material.
“[The students] shock us with their very own concepts that they create to their documentaries,” she stated. “So their abilities, their pursuits, their talent units, and, some seem on digicam, which is enjoyable to see.
There have been a complete of 150 prizes awarded to college students. All StudentCam 2025 prize winners’ work may be seen right here.