C-SPAN announced that students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, are winners in C-SPAN’s national 2020 StudentCam competition. The following students from Smith Middle School have won prizes:

Teresa Fang and Jett Mu will receive $750 as third prize winners for the documentary, "AMERICA: This Equality," about equality and education.  

Uma Kirk, Emmaline Phillips and Yasmine Kwong will receive $250 as honorable mention winners for the documentary, "Catching Fire: Wildfires in the US."

Kate Rampel and Vivian Zhu will receive $250 as honorable mention winners for the documentary, "The American Achievement," about the education gap. 

 

Each year since 2006, C-SPAN partners with 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's Your Vision in 2020? Explore the issue you most want presidential candidates to address during the campaign."

 

In response, nearly 5,400 students from 44 states and Washington, D.C., participated. C-SPAN received over 2,500 submissions on a variety of topics. The most popular topics addressed were: 

• Environment (18%) – Climate Change, Green New Deal, Pollution and Plastics 

• Equality/Discrimination (15%) – Prison Rights, Affirmative Action, Veterans' Rights, Human Rights

• Guns (13%) – Gun Control, Mass Shootings, Second Amendment, Gun Safety 

• Health Care (12%) – Universal Health Care, Mental Health, Addictions, Vaping

• Immigration (9%) – Border Security, Undocumented Immigration, Separation of Families, DACA

 

"StudentCam provides a platform for young people to have their voices heard on the issues they are clearly passionate about," said C-SPAN's Director of Education Relations Craig McAndrew. "This year's entries reflect remarkable research and production values and feature a wide range of interviews with elected officials and experts. The life skills students learn from this experience will carry them forward in their academic, personal and professional lives."

 

C-SPAN is funded by America’s cable television companies, who also support StudentCam. In Chapel Hill, C-SPAN is available locally through Spectrum. 

 

"Spectrum is committed to strengthening the communities where we live and work through educational programs like StudentCam,” said Adam Falk, Senior Vice President, State Government Affairs for Charter Communications, Inc. "We are proud of this partnership with C-SPAN that encourages students to think critically about the issues that affect our country and local community. Congratulations to the winning students at Smith Middle School on the creativity demonstrated in these excellent works.”   

 

These winners are among the 330 students from across the country winning a total of $100,000. C-SPAN is awarding one grand prize, 4 first prizes, 16 second prizes, 32 third prize winners and 97 honorable mention prizes. The winning videos will receive cash awards of $5,000, $3,000, $1,500, $750 and $250, respectively. This year marks the 16th year of the StudentCam competition, which has awarded over $1,000,000 in prizes.

 

High school students competed on a regional level, with the United States divided into three regions: West, Central and East. Middle school students were judged on a national basis. The grand prize winner was selected nationally among all regions and grade levels.   

 

The 150 winning videos can be viewed at http://www.studentcam.org and may be used in a broadcast with attribution to C-SPAN. To schedule an interview with one or more of the winning students, please contact Pam McGorry at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

 

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.