Two Eastern Middle School students will take home the national first prize and $3,000 in the middle school division of C-SPAN’s 2019 StudentCam documentary competition, the company announced.
Ida Chen and Han Lee, eighth-graders at the school at 300 University Blvd. East, created a six-minute piece titled “Mc’America: America Runs on Fast Food.” The piece looks at the consumption of fast food in this country, its effects on public health such as obesity and healthcare costs, fast-food marketing, and other issues.
The theme for this year’s competition was “What does it mean to be American?” Students in middle and high school were asked to submit an entry about 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),” the company said in a press release.
Chen and Lee’s film will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. Eastern time and throughout the day on April 17.
In addition, the students, along with 15 other winners of second, third and honorable mention prizes from Eastern, will be recognized during a student assembly at 8:45 a.m. Friday, March 29 that will be attended by C-SPAN representatives, along with family, friends, school and elected officials, C-SPAN said.
Montgomery Blair High School also was well represented among the winners of this year’s competition, with 13 second, third and honorable mention winners. Those students will be honored at a similar 9 a.m. assembly at the school (51 University Blvd. East) Wednesday, March 27.
Here are the lists of winners as received from C-SPAN:
The following Eastern 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 neighborhoods.
- 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.”
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.
C-SPAN graphic