Alameda students are among the winners in C-SPAN’s national 2021 StudentCam competition. Aidan Gleason, Julia Dashzeveg and Oliver Cantal, students at Alameda Community Learning Center in Alameda, will receive $250 as honorable mention winners for the documentary, Crumbling Foundation: Ending the California Housing Crisis.

The competition, now in its 17th year, invited all middle and high school students to enter by producing a short documentary. C-SPAN, in cooperation with cable television partners, asked students to join the national conversation on the challenges our country is facing with the theme: “Explore the issue you most want the president and new Congress to address in 2021.”

Despite the unique challenges brought about by COVID-19 this year, more than 2,300 students across the country participated in the contest. C-SPAN received over 1,200 entries from 43 states and Washington, D.C. The most popular topics addressed were:
• Health Care (14.9%)
• Environmental and Energy Policy (14.6%)
• Equal Rights and Equity (13.5%)
• Criminal Justice/Policing (7.6%)
• Education (7.5%)

Winners from the Bay Area included students in San Ramon and Pleasanton.

Agamroop Kaur, a student at Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon, will receive $1,500 as a second-prize winner for the documentary, BIG Tobacco BIGGER Epidemic, about Youth Vaping. This documentary will air on C-SPAN throughout the day on April 6.

Philip Avdey,a student at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton, will receive $750 as a third-prize winner for the documentary, Frontier, about space exploration.

These winners are among 299 students from across the country winning a total of $100,000. C-SPAN awarded one grand prize, four first prizes, 16 second prizes, 32 third prizes and 97 honorable mention prizes. The winning documentarians receive cash awards of $5,000, $3,000, $1,500, $750 and $250, respectively.

High school students competed on a regional level, with the United States divided into three regions: West, Central and East. Middle school students were judged on a national basis. The grand-prize winner was selected nationally among all regions and grade levels.

The 150 winning videos can be viewed at www.studentcam.org.