Students place third in C-SPAN's video competition, 'Studentcam'

Max Blumberg, Shan Jiang and Tiffany Cioppi, students at Heim Middle School in Williamsville, have received third prize in C-SPAN's "StudentCam," the video documentary contest for which middle and high school students produced a video exploring a current political topic using C-SPAN programming.

The annual competition is sponsored by C-SPAN Classroom, which supports educators' use of C-SPAN in their classes or for research.

The winners were announced during a recent episode of C-SPAN's live viewer call-in program, "Washington Journal."

The three won $500 for the video, "Intelligent Design." Teacher Michael Russo was their faculty advisor.

This is the second consecutive year that the trio was honored in the competition.

The video aired on C-SPAN on May 21, which was followed by a live phone interview during "Washington Journal."

The documentary can be downloaded or streamed from the competition's Web site, www.studentcam.org.

The StudentCam competition names 45 winners accompanied by $25,000 in cash awards, including a grand-prize winner plus two, first-prize winners; eight, second- prize winners; 14 third-prize winners; and 20 honorable mentions in middle and high school categories. The top 25 videos will air on C-SPAN.

The grand-prize winning video, "Jupiter or Bust: The El Sol Solution," focuses on illegal immigration and the local solution in Jupiter, Fla.. It will air at 6:50 a.m. on Friday, June 15.

A complete list of winners and schedule of "Washington Journal" air times and interviews is also on line.