Long Beach Polytechnic High School students were recognized this week for their winning entries in C-SPAN’s national StudentCam video competition. During a schoolwide assembly on Monday, C-SPAN representatives and officials from Spectrum joined teachers, families and local leaders to celebrate the students’ achievements and honor their teacher, Jeff Montooth, who guided them through the project.
This year’s competition asked students across the U.S. to create a short documentary answering the question: “What issue is most important to you or your community?” The contest drew nearly 3,500 participants from 42 states and Washington, D.C., and received more than 1,700 entries.
“The program provides a unique opportunity for young people to showcase the critical thinking, problem solving and civic engagement skills essential for informed and active communities,” said Adam Falk, Senior Vice President of State Government Affairs for Spectrum, in a public statement. “We celebrate this year’s winners and look forward to watching them continue to follow their passion for storytelling through this medium.”
Several freshmen from Poly High earned national recognition:
- Nolan Sheets, Rene Ortega and Roman Leonor won second prize and $1,500 for their documentary “Crime: Perception vs. Reality.”
- Sara Kong received third prize and $750 for “Ocean Acidification: Small Changes, Big Problems.”
- Isabella Sim and Owen Gurga were awarded honorable mention and $250 for “Editing the Future: Bridging Science, Society, and Policy in Gene Editing.”
- Juliet Haesly and Megan Lee earned honorable mention and $250 for “No Means No.”
- Eliza Floto and Brianna Goldstein received honorable mention and $250 for “The Divided States of America: Is the United States Really United?”
- Natalie Hebdon earned honorable mention and $250 for “A Safer Tomorrow: America’s Need for Enhanced Disaster Protection.”
The annual StudentCam competition is now in its 21st year and encourages young people to explore current issues through video storytelling. This year, the most popular topics chosen by students included the environment, education, health care, gun policy and economic concerns.
C-SPAN, which is supported by cable and satellite providers as a public service, partners locally with Spectrum to bring StudentCam to Long Beach. Since the program began in 2004, it has awarded more than $1.6 million in prize money to students and schools.
All 150 winning videos from the 2025 competition are available to view at StudentCam.org.
