Several Philadelphia-area students were recognized in and received awards for their work in a C-SPAN documentary film festival contest last month.
The annual documentary competition allows students to research and interview sources on various local and national topics, said Pam McGorry, an education program senior specialist at C-SPAN.
“Every year, we host this competition for middle school and high school students, and the goal is to really get them thinking about topics or issues that are being talked about across the country,” she said.
This year, middle and high school students were asked to address the theme: “Your Message to the President: What issue is most important to you or your community?”
McGorry said the students covered a wide variety of topics.
“There’s the climate and the environment, there’s education policy, there’s health care and all that falls underneath that umbrella,” she said. “Gun violence was another topic, and inflation, government spending, taxes. So these students are tackling some pretty tough topics for middle and high school students.”
Competitors are able to participate solo, in pairs or in a group of three. All documentaries require students to use various C-SPAN news clips and interview sources in their documentaries.
Three Philly-area groups won prizes for their documentaries:
- Ione Saunders, a student at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, is a third-prize winner and will receive $750 for the 6-minute video “Disappeared in America,” about addiction in Kensington.
- Desmond Maggione, Nati Roemer-Block and Jai Lapp Yoder, students at Science Leadership Academy, are honorable mention prize winners and will receive $250 for the video “The Battle of Misinformation: Staying Informed in the Modern Age.” Among those interviewed is Michael Mullins, the operations director of Unite Here – a union representing hotel, gaming and food service workers.
- Matthew Dougherty, Gage Arcaro and Israel Santiago, students at Central High School, are honorable mention prize winners and will receive $250 for the video “Undocumented,” about undocumented immigration. Those interviewed include Phillippe Weisz, the Director of Legal Affairs at HIAS Pennsylvania, and an undocumented immigrant who does not share their name.
Localizing big issues
McGorry said all of the Philadelphia area documentary winners succeeded in localizing bigger issues.
“It was really interesting to see how the students chose topics that are being discussed nationally, but then took it to the local level,” she said.
She explained there were over 1,700 total entries and 3,500 students who participated in the contest. She said the entries go through several rounds of judging and the judges on the panel are made up of former classroom teachers.
McGorry explained they judge based on uses of sources, creative elements, music and inclusion of C-SPAN content.
“[The students] surprise us with their own ideas that they bring to their documentaries,” she said. “So their talents, their interests, their skill sets, and, some appear on camera, which is fun to see.
There were a total of 150 prizes awarded to students. All StudentCam 2025 prize winners’ work can be viewed here.
