PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Four juniors at Philadelphia’s Science Leadership Academy were honored by C-SPAN on Tuesday for their winning videos in the annual StudentCam competition.
Out of more than 1,700 entries nationwide, a video about addiction in Kensington earned SLA junior Ione Saunders a third-place prize worth $750.
In the competition, students were asked to address the theme, “Your message to the president: What issue is most important to you or your community?”
“I thought there were interesting stories to be told through a documentary, and I could use this as a good tool to get those personal stories out there that may not be seen with the negative perspective that people usually have on people who use drugs,” Saunders said of her video, which included conversations with people battling addiction.
“I knew I wanted to get mostly street interviews for my documentary. In particular, I had one drug user that I interviewed and that interview was a little more tricky to get and to navigate, making sure to keep that respect present.”
Three other SLA juniors, Desmond Maggione, Nati Roemer-Block and Jaiel Lapp Yoder, won honorable mention honors for their documentary, “The Battle of Misinformation.” The students will each receive $250.
Maggione said misinformation is an issue facing the country.
“In the modern day with social media and all forms of the internet, it’s very easy to fall prey to misinformation,” he said. “My parents, grandparents, even, especially the older generations, tend to see everything on the internet and believe it to be true instantly.”
Lapp Yoder said the students interviewed a representative of factcheck.org: “He told us the story of a couple who were misinformed and told that the COVID vaccine was harmful.”
He said his video explored why people may twist the truth.
“I think that a lot can be gained from misinformation — mainly money and power,” he added.
Roemer-Block said there’s nuance involved, too.
“I went in thinking misinformation was always totally wrong facts. But I learned it’s often more facts that are swayed to one side,” he said. “It’s like, not totally changing the answer, but it’s slightly changing it just to help you out, and that’s often why it works.”
Pam McGorry, a C-SPAN education program senior specialist, joined Philadelphia School Superintendent Tony Watlington and City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier at Tuesday’s ceremony at SLA.
“C-SPAN has been hosting the StudentCam documentary competition for over 20 years, and the goal is to get young people interested and involved with issues that are affecting them in their communities and across the nation,” McGorry explained. “By providing them with this platform to have their voices heard, they can get out and explore those areas of interest.”
Several other Philadelphia-area students were recognized for their StudentCam entries. The first-prize winner went to Daniel Aasa, a student at Winslow Township High School in Atco, New Jersey. He won $3,000 for his video, “Saving Sudan: U.S. Aiding in a Forgotten Crisis.”
C-SPAN also gave honorable mentions to Matthew Dougherty, Gage Arcaro and Israel Santiago at Central High School in Philadelphia, for their video about undocumented immigration; Hafsa Kanchwala, Emily Sidlow and Emi Maeda at The Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr for their video about affordable housing; and Megha Mallavarapu at Lenape Middle School in Doylestown for her video on clean water.