Moorestown High School (MHS) students Mia Sassano, Sydney Kowalczyk and Marina Longo are 2024 honorable-mention winners in C-SPAN’s 20th annual StudentCam competition for the documentary “Homeless Not Helpless.”
StudentCam is the cable network’s annual national video documentary competition to encourage critical thinking in students on issues that affect communities, according to the competition website. C-SPAN – in cooperation with its cable partners – asked middle- and high-school students to address the theme “Looking Forward while Considering the Past.”
They considered one of two questions: “In the next 20 years, what is the most important change that you would like to see in America? “Over the past 20 years, what has been the most important change in America?”
“We didn’t think we had any shot of winning … because there’s video schools who are big into production stuff like that, and the examples we watched, we were just like, ‘Whoa, that is so good,’” Kowalczyk said.
“It was awesome getting the recognition of the honorable mention, because we were on our class trip (senior trip) when we found out, so it was really exciting.”
Now in its 20th year, StudentCam gives students the opportunity to explore multiple perspectives on topics important to them. More than 3,200 students participated, with more than 1,600 entries from 42 states and Washington, D.C. Popular topics included Artificial Intelligence, technology and social media, abortion, climate and school safety.
“In recognition of the 20th anniversary of C-SPAN’s StudentCam competition, this year we asked students to either look 20 years into the future or to reflect on a topic of importance to them and its past,” explained Craig McAndrew, director of C-SPAN Education Relations.
“Students have skillfully blended their perspectives with in-depth research and an array of expert interviews, and we are thrilled to share their accomplishments with their local communities, and the nation.”
Sassano, Kowalczyk and Longo heard about StudentCam through Jessica Noguera, video production teacher at the high school and its Video Production Club advisor. They are currently in Noguera’s Honors Video Production 3 class, a program that helped them in the competition.
“I think just each year I’ve just liked it more and more, because the aspects got more difficult, but then you also learn so much, especially with the editing and the computers,” Kowalczyk noted. “ … It’s always a fun environment to come into.”
“I think it’s interesting now, taking the things that we’ve learned from this class and seeing it in real life,” Longo related. “ … It’s definitely a very fun class. It’s different. It kind of gives you a break from math or whatever, and (you) come in and just do all creative stuff.
” … Everyone tries everything, so maybe you’re filming, maybe you’re acting, maybe you’re editing, but you get the whole experience at some point.”
Over the course of two decades, C-SPAN has awarded more than $1.5 million in prizes. Since 2004, more than 63,000 students and 20,000 teachers have participated in the competition. High-school students competed regionally in one of three regions: West, Central and East. Middle-schoolers were judged on a national basis.
Videos were evaluated by a panel of educators and C-SPAN representatives based on the competition’s theme, quality of expression, inclusion of varying sides of the documentary’s topic and effective incorporation of C-SPAN programming.
“It’s something that I think people don’t understand how big of an issue it is,” Longo explained of “Homeless Not Helpless.” “They kind of just go along with their lives and they don’t realize that there’s so many people struggling – people who you might even know – but you don’t realize that secretly, they’re really struggling in life.
” … It was something that has always struck me as just crazy, like, ‘How are we letting people just sleep on the street?’”
“People are aware of the issue, but it just makes it so much more real and gives you a connection to it, which I think was one of our purposes when making this film, was to make people feel a connection to the issue and make them want to help out more,” Kowalczyk observed.
“ … There are so many people struggling and like Marina said, we might not know until you just talk to people.”
Longo and Kowalczyk hope to see what “Homeless Not Helpless” can do for others.
“I just feel like when someone identifies someone as homeless, they downgrade them, like they’re weak, they live on the streets, and I just think that’s not true at all,” Kowalczyk said. “They don’t know the back story of what happened to them or how they ended up there, so I think people just kind of assume, rather than actually knowing.”
“For anyone (who) could hypothetically watch the documentary who is struggling financially like that, they would understand and know about the resources that they have and not feel so stigmatized,” Longo pointed out. “ … People tend to think that they’re going to get put down if they ask for help, so definitely just knowing that there is support out there and help and to encourage other people, when you walk by someone who truly needs help, to help them and not just keep walking.”
“Homeless Not Helpless” can be viewed at www.viddler.com/v/c6dd7edd.
