Rounds Congratulates Sioux Falls, Rapid City Students for Documentary Competition Award

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today congratulated nine Sioux Falls and Rapid City students for receiving top prizes in C-SPAN’s 2015 StudentCam Documentary Competition. This contest asked students across the nation to create a brief documentary on a national policy issue. These nine South Dakotans are among 347 recipients nationwide. Winners of second prizes and above will have their videos aired on C-SPAN throughout the day on April 9th.

“I congratulate these bright young South Dakota students for receiving top awards from C-SPAN’s documentary competition,” said Rounds. “The hard work these young men and women put into their documentaries shows maturity, creativity, curiosity and initiative. What happens in Washington has a direct effect on their futures. I encourage them to continue to stay engaged in current events and the political process.”

South Dakota Winners

• Max Martin, a seventh grader at Edison Middle School in Sioux Falls, will receive $250 for his Honorable Mention documentary, “Scars Unhealed,” about the Veterans Affairs Choice Act.
• Garrett Masters and Rhiannon Bull, seventh graders at Edison Middle School in Sioux Falls, will receive $250 for their Honorable Mention documentary, “Technology in the Classroom: Admirable Advantage or Dreadful Distraction?”
• Matthew Eastmo, Travis Mills, and Ashley Peterson, seniors at Saint Thomas Moore High School in Rapid City, will receive $1,500 for their Second Prize documentary, “The Keystone Effect.” This video will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day on April 9, 2015.
• London Kahler, Hanna Glissendorf, and Alexa Diehl, seniors at Saint Thomas Moore High School in Rapid City, will receive $750 for their Third Prize documentary, “Technical Difficulties: Fixing Electronic Medical Records. ”

Students were asked to answer the question, “The Three Branches and You: tell a story that demonstrates how a policy, law, or action by either the executive, legislative, or judicial branch has affected you or your community.” In response, C-SPAN received 2,280 video submissions from almost 5,000 students across the nation.

Documentaries were judged by a panel of C-SPAN education representatives and evaluated 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.