POWELL — Olentangy Liberty High School students Ben Kurian and Chase Petersen received their recognition for winning C-SPAN’s annual StudentCam documentary competition on Friday.
Kurian won first place in the high school central division, winning $3,000 in prize money and an additional $500 for receiving the “fan favorite” award.
This marks Kurian’s third year winning first place, this year as a sophomore.
Fellow sophomore Petersen placed second, winning him $1,500 in prize money in his first time participating in the national competition. He also won the behind-the-scenes photo competition.
C-SPAN aired both short documentaries in April.
Gov. Mike DeWine gave the students special praise in a video presented at the award ceremony.
“Being recognized as a winner of C-SPAN’s student documentary competition is quite an accomplishment. We’re proud to have bright Ohio students, such as yourself, represent the Buckeye State,” DeWine said.
State Senator Andrew Brenner and Delaware County Commissioner Gary Merrell also attended to offer high praise to the two students.
“It also takes a lot of hard work and determination by you, the students, to be able to do these things. And to get such national recognition here, multiple years in a row, and maybe future multiple years in a row, that is a very positive thing,” Brenner said.
“To get such national recognition here, multiple years in a row, and maybe future multiple years in a row, that is a very positive thing.”
State Senator andrew brenner
The two sole Ohio winners were selected out of 1,800 total entries from 38 states, with the competition divided into three divisions, C-SPAN Representative Rachel Katz said.
When the three-person panel of judges (all former teachers) look at the list of the top 10 finalists in the competition, they do not know where the students are from, nor what high school they attend.
This year’s competition theme was in line with America’s 250th birthday, challenging students to explore the Declaration of Independence’s influence on a key moment in American history or how the document applies to a modern issue in America today.
Kurian’s video: ‘A right to health’
Kurian opted to examine a contemporary issue: healthcare in America. Specifically, he posed the question, Does the Declaration of Independence guarantee Americans the right to health?
“I think my documentary, ‘A right to health,’ focuses on whether health should be a right, not necessarily healthcare or health insurance, or whether each and every American deserves to have quality health,” Kurian said.
He argued policy, such as the Affordable Care Act, can only go so far if Americans do not have access to care.
Kurian said change in healthcare must come from other places besides policy:
- Healthcare needs to be preventative, not in response to sickness. Yale University Epidemiology Associate Professor Kaveh Khoshnood, who Kurian interviewed for the documentary, pointed to the example of offering clean needles to prevent HIV/AIDs. He said HIV cases reduced by 33% in people who had access to clean needles, and drug usage did not increase in non-users.
- Healthcare providers need to come to their patients, not the other way around. Kurian spoke to OhioHealth Clinical Manager Sherri Alspach about OhioHealth’s ‘Wellness on Wheels’ mobile units. The unit provides the same care a patient would receive at a brick-and-mortar location, but without the long drives.
- Healthcare organizations should target a few critical outcomes to improve the health of entire communities. For example, if a town or city sees high rates of stroke, healthcare providers should promote preventative strategies to reduce the risk of strokes.
Kurian’s father drove him across the county to Philadelphia, New Haven, Baltimore and back to Ohio to produce the documentary and speak with lawmakers, public health administrators, physicians and more.
Kurian plans to pursue a career in public health after high school through medicine or public administration.
Petersen’s video: ‘Against the Silence’
Inspired by his grandfather, who fought in the Vietnam War, Petersen wanted his documentary to look at the similarities between the Vietnam War protests in the 1970s and the early Americans’ Declaration of Independence from Great Britain’s governance.
He said at both of these key moments in American history, citizens were protesting their government because they felt their grievances were ignored.
That tension grew stronger after the Kent State University shooting that left four student protesters dead.
Petersen traveled around the state, interviewing professors and filming at The Ohio State University, Ohio University and Kent State to discuss the events.
“The students had not started a fight. They were standing for freedom, for accountability and the right to question authority,” Petersen said in the video.
“At that moment, the ideas written two centuries earlier— life, liberty and the courage to speak truth to power— were tested in the most tragic way.”
He said challenging authority is an American tradition — one that will continue to live on, even when it becomes violent.
Petersen plans to take the skills he’s learned through producing his first documentary with him in his postsecondary career by majoring in film. But law school also sounds equally as promising, he said.
Both boys plan to produce documentaries for the competition next year — and both used the prize money to purchase upgraded camera and audio gear.
