C-SPAN has announced the 2025 winners of its 21st annual StudentCam competition, recognizing students from Silver Spring, Bethesda, Potomac, Germantown, Rockville, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. Dermott Foley of Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring won the grand prize for his documentary on fentanyl overdose, while other students received second, third, and honorable mention prizes for topics such as affordable housing, climate change, and healthcare policies.
Per the news release distributed on Wednesday, March 26: “Today C-SPAN announced that students in Silver Spring, Bethesda, Potomac, Germantown, Rockville, Maryland and Washington, D.C. are 2025 winners in C-SPAN’s 21st annual StudentCam competition.
Dermott Foley, a student at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, is the grand-prize winner and will receive $5,000 for the documentary, “Teens, Social Media, & the Fentanyl verdose Crisis.” This documentary will air on C-SPAN on April 21 at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day.
Sofia Ou, Eva Ingram and Eliana Wei, students at Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring, Maryland, are first-prize winners and will receive $3,000 for the documentary, “One Party, Two Party, Red Party, Blue Party. But What About Third Parties?” This documentary will air on C-SPAN on April 17 at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day.
The following student groups are second-prize winners and will receive $1,500:
Sukey Hayden and Joe Book, students at District of Columbia International School in Washington, D.C., for the documentary, “Dear Mr. President, We Want Statehood.” This documentary will air on C-SPAN on April 16 at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day.
Riley MacArthur and Sophia Jones, students at Montgomery Blair High School, for the documentary, “Investing in America: Museums and the Future of Our Nation.” This documentary will air on C-SPAN on April 12 at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day.
Dahlia Badt, Kiran Durvasula and Zoe Hood, students at Montgomery Blair High School, for the documentary, “She Deserves Justice: Reforming a Prison System That Fails Women.” This documentary will air on C-SPAN on April 4 at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day.
Francesca Bader and Larissa Deng, students at Eastern Middle School, for the documentary, “Redlining: Broken Lines, Broken Lives,” about discriminatory housing policy. This documentary will air on C-SPAN on April 13 at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day.
The following student groups are third-prize winners and will receive $750:
Siblings Asher Anantham, a student at Montgomery Blair High School, and Alana Anantham, a student at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, for the documentary, “The $700 Billion College Experience,” about federal higher education subsidies and student loans.
Murilo dos Santos, Zev Unger and Sami Youssef, students at Montgomery Blair High School, for the documentary, “Living in Limbo,” about the affordable housing crisis in America.
Chloe Kim, Esme Chang-Gillespie and Fiona Sisan, students at Eastern Middle School, for the documentary, “From Classroom to Career: The Lasting Impact of Education Inequity.”
Isabel Woldeab and Chloe Yang, students at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, for the documentary, “Farms of the Future,” about farm subsidies and their environmental impact.
Shibani Mishra, a student at Julius West Middle School in Rockville, for the documentary, “Who’s In Charge Here?” about the lack of turnout in local elections.
Shreyas Kyada, William Bosely and Kyle Jones, students at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Germantown, for the documentary, “Enemies At Bay: Pollution In The Chesapeake.”
The following students are honorable mention prize winners and will receive $250:
Rockville High School
Ariana Arturo, Alessandra Lujan and Chloe Danstanlee, for the documentary, “Bleeding Out In The Public Square,” about access to abortion.
Wheaton High School
Jessica Minicozzi, a student at Wheaton High School in Silver Spring, for the documentary, “For Generations to Come: The Policy of Preservation.”
Winston Churchill High School & Richard Montgomery High School
Amy Yuan, a student at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, and Lucas Hahn, a student at Richard Montgomery High School, for the documentary, “Broken by Design: The Flaws of America’s Healthcare System.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School
Aliya Sadiq, for the documentary, “Childcare in America.”
Ilsa Lee, for the documentary, “Helping the Hellbenders,” about the conservation of the Eastern Hellbender salamander.
Rouhan Nayyer, Arman Raoufian and Caleb Yo, for the documentary, “The Opioid Crisis: The Poisoning of a Nation.”
Eastern Middle School
Jack Summerfield, Akhil Menon and Terrence McDonough, for the documentary, “The Crisis of Unaffordable Housing.”
Avani Durvasula, for the documentary, “United We Budget: The Bipartisan Solution to America’s Deficit.”
Malinda Zhu and Gelila Abraham, for the documentary, “Still Pretty Prevails: Partiality in Conservation Efforts.”
Meba Henoke, Atharva Bengeri and Fatima Alhamim, for the documentary, “Democracy Without Choice,” about uncontested elections and term limits.
Montgomery Blair High School
Lark Jeffers, Leya Fekadu and Ivy Palmer, for the documentary, “A Tough Pill to Swallow – The Opioid Epidemic and the United States.”
Kavi Janardan, for the documentary, “Old Laws, New Talent: The H-1B Cap.”
Clara Faulk, for the documentary, “Going Rotten; Future Implications of Current Food Systems.”
Jaida Cox, for the documentary, “Lift Every Voice,” about the lack of teacher diversity in the United States and how it negatively impacts the success of students.
Juliana Fay Thompson and Miriam Torrey-Coffidis, for the documentary, “Funding for FEMA: The Prevention and Preparation Behind America’s Natural Disasters.”
Veronique Dimyan, Madelyn Evjen and June Kepka, for the documentary, “Standing Against Censorship: Book Banning’s Effect on Schools.”
Linnea Ericson, Lillian Levine and Daisy MacGregor, for the documentary, “Lower Prices, Higher Costs,” about counterfeit pharmaceuticals and how they are upheld by drug monopolies.
Lily Mancini, Elliot Check and Eleni Vogler, for the documentary, “Death to Death Row: The Story of Clemente Aguirre Jarquin.”
C-SPAN also recognizes the following educators who served as advisers in the StudentCam competition:
- Douglas Jimenez, Montgomery Blair High School
- Daniel Cole, Montgomery Blair High School
- Douglas Wilson, Montgomery Blair High School
- George Mayo, Montgomery Blair High School
- Warren Scheib, Eastern Middle School
- Ashley Porter, District of Columbia International School
- Jeong Lee, Julius West Middle School
- Krista McKim, Rockville High School
- James Dempsey, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School
C-SPAN, in cooperation with its cable and satellite television partners, asked middle and high school students to address the theme — “Your Message to the President: What issue is most important to you or your community?”
Now in its 21st year, this project-based learning experience asked students to explore and analyze matters of personal, local or national importance. In response, C-SPAN received over 1,700 entries and nearly 3,500 students participated from 42 states and Washington, D.C. The most popular topics addressed were:
- Climate, Environment, and Land Use (11%)
- K–12 Education Policies and the Cost of College (10%)
- Health Care and Mental Health (10%)
- Gun Violence, School Safety, and Firearm Policies (9%)
- Inflation, Taxes, Government Spending, and the Economy (9%)
“Congratulations to all of the incredibly talented young students who won awards in this year’s competition! Through in-depth research and interviews with an array of topical and technical experts, you have crafted impactful short stories that capture issues of wide public interest and importance,” said C-SPAN’s Director of Education Relations Craig McAndrew. “Your documentaries set a very high bar for future StudentCam filmmakers, and you should be proud knowing your work will inspire your peers and foster thoughtful consideration from all audiences. We can’t wait to see what you do next!”
C-SPAN is funded by America’s cable and satellite television companies as a commercial free public service. In Silver Spring, Bethesda, Potomac, Germantown, Rockville, Maryland and Washington, D.C., C-SPAN is available through Comcast, our local partner in StudentCam.
In addition to the grand-prize and first-prize winners, C-SPAN is awarding 16 second prizes, 32 third prizes and 97 honorable mention prizes. These winning videos will receive cash awards of $1,500, $750 and $250, respectively. The StudentCam competition has awarded over $1.6 million in prizes since 2004.
High school students competed on a regional level, with the United States divided into three regions: East, Central and West. 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 studentcam.org and may be used in a broadcast with attribution to C-SPAN. To schedule an interview with one or more of the winning students, please contact Pam McGorry at [email protected].
The annual StudentCam competition is funded by the C-SPAN Education Foundation. Videos were evaluated by a panel of educators and C-SPAN representatives based on the thoughtful examination of the competition’s theme, quality of expression, inclusion of varying sides of the documentary’s topic, and effective incorporation of C-SPAN programming.”