C-SPAN will be heading to Alexandria City High School on Wednesday, May 4 to honor Lucy Savarie and Mia Mervis for their winning entry in 2022 in C-SPAN’s annual student video documentary competition, StudentCam.

Grade 10 students Savarie and Mervis won honorable mention and $250 for their video, One stamp at a timea food stamp video.

This ceremony is one of the first C-SPAN has held in two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will also recognize 2021 StudentCam winners Helen Russell, Alison Avelar and Elena Gutierrez for their honorable mention for the video, Dear Mr. President: History or Progress? A C-SPAN representative will join the community in recognizing them at an assembly of classmates, teachers, family, and elected officials.

The competition, which is in its 18th edition, invited all middle and high school students to

participate by submitting a self-produced short documentary. C-SPAN, in cooperation with its cable TV partners, asked students to explore a federal policy or program and address the topic: “How does the federal government affect your life?”

“This year, we asked students to reflect on the relevance of a federal program or policy to their lives and community,” said Craig McAndrew, director of education relations for C-SPAN. “The winners have demonstrated exceptional research and production value in weaving personal stories with historical or contemporary issues. These middle and high school students far exceeded our expectations, and we are thrilled to share their hard work with the country.

C-SPAN is funded by the American cable television companies, which also support StudentCam. In Alexandria, C-SPAN is available locally through Comcast.

“We are inspired to hear directly from students about government programs and policies that they believe have the most impact on their generation, including how they affect our local communities,” said Misty Allen, vice-president. president of government and regulatory affairs for the Comcast region. “Comcast is proud to continue its partnership with C-SPAN in support of StudentCam and we congratulate the winning Alexadria students for outstanding achievement.”

This year, more than 3,000 students from across the country participated in the contest. C-SPAN received over 1,400 entries, including from 41 states, plus Washington, DC, Morocco and South Korea. The most popular topics discussed were:

• Environment and pollution (10%)
• Health care and mental health (9%)
• COVID-19 and recovery (7%)
• Immigrants (5%)
• Second Amendment and Gun Laws (4%)

Over 300 students from across the country win a total of $100,000. C-SPAN awards one grand prize, four first prizes, 16 second prizes, 32 third prizes and 97 honorable mentions. These winning videos will receive cash prizes of $5,000, $3,000, $1,500, $750, and $250, respectively. See the 150 winning videos on StudentCam.org.

In Alexandria, C-SPAN programming is provided by Comcast as a commercial-free public service and can be seen on channels 76 and 1128; C-SPAN2 on channels 104 and 1129; and C-SPAN3 on channels 105 and 1130 and on the web at C-SPAN.org.

C-SPAN Classroom is the network’s FREE membership service that works with C-SPAN’s programs in public affairs, congressional coverage, nonfiction books, and American history to create free resources for students. teachers, students, and the public for use in classrooms, projects, or for research. The C-SPAN Classroom website offers social studies teachers access to thousands of free resources, including short current affairs videos, lesson plans and bell rings, as well as clips on Constitution and events on this day in history. Get engaged with C-SPAN classroom on Twitter and Facebook.