Three Correia Middle School students in Point Loma were honorable mention prize winners in C-SPAN’s national 2020 StudentCam competition.
The three contest-winning students – Wyatt Evans, Cole Fisher and Ian Sturak – will receive $250 for their documentary, “Wrong Winner: The Coming Debacle in the Electoral College,” about the emerging political crisis in U.S. politics, with the possible winning of the presidency by a candidate with far fewer votes than his/her opponent.
Since 2006, Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN), an American cable and satellite television network televising U.S. federal government and pubic affairs programming, has partnered with local cable television providers nationwide to invite middle and high school students to produce short documentaries about a subject of national importance. This year, students addressed the theme, “What’s Your Vision in 2020? Explore the issue you most want presidential candidates to address during the campaign.”
These Correia winners are among 330 students nationwide who won a total of $100,000 in the C-Span contest. Middle school students were judged on a national basis. The grand prize winner was selected nationally among all regions and grade levels.  
The C-SPAN Bus visited Correia Middle School in March to honor the three winning students and join with the community in recognizing them in front of classmates, teachers, family and elected officials. The student’s video was also presented during the ceremony. The three Correia students talked about their project.
“We choose the topic of the electoral college because it resonated with all of us as something that isn’t right in America. All of us believed it was something that should be changed,” said Ian Sturak
“We wrap up our project with our views on the electoral college’s place in America, as well as possible solutions for how we can address the issue,” said Wyatt Evans
“Throughout the production of the video, we faced multiple unavoidable setbacks, such as interviewees being unable to fit our schedules and a lack of filming equipment. We knew this topic was important, though, and we had to get our message out there,” said Cole Fisher.
The student’s video is at viddler.com/v/89017bf3.
The Correia contingent were among early 5,400 students from 44 states and Washington, D.C. who participated in the C-SPAN contest, which received over 2,500 submissions on a variety of topics including the environment, equality/discrimination, guns, health care and immigration.
“StudentCam provides a platform for young people to have their voices heard on the issues they are clearly passionate about,” said C-SPAN’s director of education relations, Craig McAndrew. “This year’s entries reflect remarkable research and production values and feature a wide range of interviews with elected officials and experts. The life-skills students learn from this experience which will carry them forward in their academic, personal and professional lives.”
“Congratulations to our local winners on their hard work, creativity and well-deserved recognition,” said Sam Attisha, regional manager for Cox Communications. “Cox is committed to strengthening our communities through educational programs and we are proud to partner with C-SPAN in its mission to encourage students to think critically about issues that affect our country.”
In the student documentary contest, C-SPAN is awarding one grand prize, four first prizes, 16 second prizes, 32 third-prize winners and 97 honorable mentions. The winning videos will receive cash awards of $5,000, $3,000, $1,500, $750 and $250, respectively. This year marks the 16th year of the StudentCam competition, which has awarded over $1 million in prizes.
The 150 winning videos can be viewed at studentcam.organd may be used in a broadcast with attribution to C-SPAN. 
The annual competition is sponsored 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, the inclusion of varying sides of the documentary’s topic, and effective incorporation of C-SPAN programming.
C-SPAN is funded by America’s cable television companies, who also support StudentCam. In San Diego, C-SPAN is available locally through Cox.