C-SPAN visits Mansfield and McKinney to honor the winner of the local StudentCam documentary

Students from Ben Barber Innovation Academy and Imagine International Academy of North Texas will be honored at events in collaboration with Spectrum and local officials

WASHINGTON (May 3, 2024) – C-SPAN will visit the Ben Barber Innovation Academy in Mansfield, Texas on May 8 at 1:15 p.m. to celebrate and honor students for their winning entries in C-SPAN’s annual student video documentary competition, StudentCam. A C-SPAN and Spectrum representative will join the community in recognizing the following students at a gathering of classmates, teachers and elected officials.

Ben Barber Innovation Academy 11th graders Drew Lindsey and John Wells won second prize and $1,500 for the video “The Greatest Competitor,” about U.S.-China relations.

Bright Evbie, Addisyn Richard and Kamron Brown, 10th graders from the Ben Barber Innovation Academy, won third prize and $750 for the documentary “What is Wrong with Our Food?” about obesity and health.

Ben Barber Innovation Academy 12th graders Stanley Knight, Thomas Kariuki and Paige Fassett won honorable mention and $250 for the documentary “What is Entrepreneurship?”

Ben Barber Innovation Academy 11th graders Claire Kline, Rachel Fornero and Naomi Spence won an honorable mention and $250 for the documentary “Fostering Change in America” about the foster care system.

C-SPAN will also visit the Imagine International Academy of North Texas in McKinney, Texas on May 8 at 8:30 a.m. for a meet and greet with Anahita Poongundran, Ruchi Gali and Yazhini Arunprakash, 11th graders who won honorable mention and $250 for the documentary “Crossroads of Compassion: Balancing U.S. Aid to Ukraine.” (This event is closed to the public.)

This year, C-SPAN and our cable partners celebrate the 20th anniversary of the StudentCam competition by asking students to tackle the theme “Looking Forward While Considering the Past.” High school students could choose one of two questions and create a short documentary on that theme: What is the most important change you would like to see in America over the next twenty years? OR What has been the most important change in America over the past twenty years?

“In honor of the 20th anniversary of C-SPAN’s StudentCam competition, this year we asked students to look twenty years into the future or think about a topic that is important to them and the past” , said Craig McAndrew, director of C-SPAN. SPAN Educational Relations. “Students have expertly combined their perspectives with in-depth research and a series of expert interviews, and we are excited to share their achievements with their local communities and the nation.”

C-SPAN is funded by the US cable television companies as a commercial free public service, which also support StudentCam. In Mansfield and McKinney, C-SPAN is available locally through Spectrum.

“For two decades, StudentCam has provided a platform for students across the country to make their voices heard on issues important to them and their communities,” said Adam Falk, Senior Vice President of State Government Affairs for Spectrum. “Like this year’s winning students, Spectrum is committed to strengthening the cities and towns where we live and work, and we congratulate our local winners on their outstanding performance in C-SPAN’s 2024 StudentCam competition.”

Now in its 20th year, more than 3,200 students from across the country participated in the competition. C-SPAN received more than 1,600 submissions from 42 states and Washington, DC. The most popular topics covered were:

Artificial intelligence, technology and social media (18%)
Abortion, healthcare and mental health (17%)
Climate, energy and land use and pollution (13%)
School safety, gun policy and criminal justice (11%)
Economy, school financing and homelessness (8%)

More than 300 students and 200 teachers from across the country will win a total of $150,000. C-SPAN donated another $50,000 in teacher awards this year in honor of its 20th anniversary. C-SPAN awards one main prize, 4 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. Over the course of twenty years, more than 63,000 students and 20,000 teachers have participated in the StudentCam contest, and C-SPAN has received more than $1, 5 million in prizes awarded. You can watch all 150 winning videos from this year’s competition at StudentCam.org.