Nora Malone

Editor

On Wednesday, May 4, five Alexandria City High School students were honored by the C-SPAN Student Cam Documentary Competition presented by Comcast.

ACHS got honorable mention in both 2022 and 2021 and due to the pandemic, the 2021 honorees did not receive their certificates. So the celebration, hosted by Gryphon Magnus, celebrated both groups

The 2021 group consisted of Helen Russell, Alison Avelar, and Elena Gutierrez, their documentary ‘Dear Mr. President’ discussed the removal of statues and monuments to racist people and things in the format of directly addressing incoming president Joe Biden. It included an interview with Mayor Justin Wilson and information about the name change of both Alexandria City High School and Mathew Maury elementary school.

“A lot of the previous winners connected the topics back to their hometown,” said Russell, “And since our school was being renamed it was kind of a perfect kismet opportunity to connect our hometown to the presidential administration that was coming in.”

This year’s honorees were Mia Mervis and Lucy Savarie whose documentary ‘One Stamp at a Time’ discussed food stamps and how they changed during COVID-19. They referenced ACHS’s own free breakfast and lunch program and its effect on our community.

“We began in the library researching different topics… And saw how food assistance has become a necessity in our country and our local community,” said Savarie “There are a ton of students in our school that use food assistance..which really showed us how important it is.

The competition is countrywide and hopes to inspire students to learn more about topics and how they directly affect their community.

It’s about the students themselves learning… and exploring all sides of an issue,” said Craig McAndrew, director of education relations at C-SPAN.

The competition gets thousands of submissions each year from all over the country, its goal is to highlight the skills of students, as well as teachers.

“We [comcast] partner with C-SPAN to inspire younger generations to be civic-minded, to be engaged in their communities, and to think about issues that are going to impact them and their communities,” said Kevin Broadhurst, Vice President of Government Affairs for Comcast. “I’d like for these documentaries to be seen by a broader audience … make sure that the incredible work that these students are doing is shared.”

Photo by Nora Malone