Idaho Falls students win prize in C-SPAN’s national documentary competition

The following is a news release from C-SPAN.

IDAHO FALLS — Leah Couch and Easten Rasmuson, students at Compass Academy in Idaho Falls, are 2025 honorable mention prize winners in C-SPAN’s 21st annual StudentCam competition and will receive $250 for the video, “Book Bans: How Media Restrictions Affect Students and Communities.”

C-SPAN also recognizes Holly Dasher, an educator at the school, who served as an adviser in the StudentCam competition.

C-SPAN, in cooperation with its cable and satellite television partners, asked middle and high school students to address the theme — “Your Message to the President: What issue is most important to you or your community?”

Now in its 21st year, this project-based learning experience asked students to explore and analyze matters of personal, local or national importance. In response, C-SPAN received over 1,700 entries and nearly 3,500 students participated from 42 states and Washington, D.C. The most popular topics addressed were:

Climate, Environment, and Land Use (11%)
K–12 Education Policies and the Cost of College (10%)
Health Care and Mental Health (10%)
Gun Violence, School Safety, and Firearm Policies (9%)
Inflation, Taxes, Government Spending, and the Economy (9%)

“Congratulations to all of the incredibly talented young students who won awards in this year’s competition! Through in-depth research and interviews with an array of topical and technical experts, you have crafted impactful short stories that capture issues of wide public interest and importance,” said C-SPAN’s Director of Education Relations Craig McAndrew. “Your documentaries set a very high bar for future StudentCam filmmakers, and you should be proud knowing your work will inspire your peers and foster thoughtful consideration from all audiences. We can’t wait to see what you do next!”

C-SPAN is funded by America’s cable and satellite television companies as a commercial free public service. In Idaho Falls, C-SPAN is available through Sparklight, our local partner in StudentCam.

“Congratulations to our winners of C-SPAN’s StudentCam competition! It’s inspiring to see young students use their voices to thoughtfully examine important issues in their communities,” said Trish Niemann, Vice President, Communications Strategy at Sparklight. “Sparklight is proud to support initiatives like StudentCam that inspire young minds to become informed and active participants in shaping the world around them.”

In addition to the grand-prize and first-prize winners, C-SPAN is awarding 16 second prizes, 32 third prizes and 97 honorable mention prizes. These winning videos will receive cash awards of $1,500, $750 and $250, respectively. The StudentCam competition has awarded over $1.6 million in prizes since 2004.

High school students competed on a regional level, with the United States divided into three regions: East, Central and West. Middle school students were judged on a national basis. The grand-prize winner was selected nationally among all regions and grade levels.

The 150 winning videos can be viewed at studentcam.org.

The annual StudentCam competition is funded 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, inclusion of varying sides of the documentary’s topic, and effective incorporation of C-SPAN programming.