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DC-area students win C-SPAN contest, will have documentaries aired nationwide

Twin brothers from Montgomery County, Maryland, and 13 other D.C.-area students will have their documentaries aired nationwide as winners of a national competition.

Tyler and Dermott Foley of Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring, Maryland, are the winners of C-SPAN’s national 2022 StudentCam competition. Their documentary, “,” explored how highway expansion in the United States impacted people of color, with a focus on one Black community in Cabin John, Maryland, called Gibson Grove.



The Foleys won $5,000, and “What Happened to Gibson Grove” will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. and throughout the day April 21.

More than 3,000 students across the country took part in the contest, which asked students to create a short documentary that address the theme, “How does the federal government impact your life?”

Evelyn Shue and Ida Chen, two high school students from Montgomery County, took first prize in the East region, winning $3,000. The pair tackled the theme by examining the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 in their documentary, “,” which will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. and throughout the day on April 19.

The following students won second prize in the contest and will receive $1,500:

  • Varun Srinivasan, Daniel Franca-Koh and Noa Dubnov, students at Eastern Middle School, for the documentary, “.” It will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day April 9.
  • Sophia Jones, Lilia Lash and Riley MacArthur, students at Eastern Middle School, for the documentary, “.” It will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day April 5.
  • Anjali Harrison and Isabella Langlee, students at Eastern Middle School, for the documentary, “.” It will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day April 13.
  • Nick Bourg, Maggie Megosh and Trini Szell, students at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, for the documentary, “,” about big tech data collection. This documentary will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day April 15.

Dozens of other students in the D.C. region received cash prizes in the competition. C-SPAN received more than 1,400 entries from 41 different states, D.C., Morocco and South Korea. The 150 winning

Thomas Robertson

Thomas Robertson is an Associate Producer and Web Writer/Editor at ²ÝÝ®´«Ã½. After graduating in 2019 from James Madison University, Thomas moved away from Virginia for the first time in his life to cover the local government beat for a small daily newspaper in Zanesville, Ohio.

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