This year many of our Poly freshmen participated in the StudentCam 2017 competition. After long hours of researching, interviews, downloads, and editing many students who submitted their films were awarded for all of their hard work.
StudentCam, an annual competition of video documentaries, was started by C-Span. It encourages all students from grades six through twelve to create a short five to seven minute film on an analyzed topic. “Your message to Washington” was the StudentCam theme, each video had to answer the question “What is the most urgent issue for the new president and congress to address in 2017?”
This year, Poly students thought critically about issues that affect our communities and our nation, in order to properly address the theme. PACE Freshman made over 70 documentaries ranging in topics from The Farm Bill to Ocean Pollution to Voting Rights.
“The recording process took so many takes and retakes, and cropping each error was so tiring, I had to tape my phone to the ceiling to get the perfect recording angle,” commented freshman Kassandra Khieve, when she was asked how stressful the project was.
Films like “Plastic Ocean Pollution,” “Affordable Housing: The Solution to the Homelessness Crisis,” “Atmosphere of Denial,” “What’s the Catch?” and “Underwater Noise Pollution,” from our freshmen were awarded as Honorable Freshmen, each receiving $250.
Lucy Nottonson and Heather Davis and their piece, “The Importance of Wetlands” won third place,and they received $750. Megan Dines, a part of the team including Elizabeth Requejo and Bailey Cervana who created, “Underwater Noise Pollution,” said, “it was interesting to learn and research about my topic, it also raised my grade, I liked it.”