A northeast Iowa high school student has won third-place in a national video competition. Aplington-Parkersburg senior Ethan Self was one of nearly 5,000 students from 45 states who submitted a video that tells a story demonstrating how government action has impacted their community.
The StudentCam competition, sponsored by C-SPAN, invites students in grades 6-12 to produce a five-to-seven minute documentary on a national policy issue.
Ethan Self
Self’s documentary is about the Americans With Disabilities Act and he briefly appears in the video to explain his interest in the legislation. “I have a disorder called developmental apraxia of speech which causes me to have a hard time (understanding) the meaning of words and to use them in conversations,” Self says. While he finished third in the Central Region high school division, Self placed in the top 40 nationally and won $750 in the competition.
Self says he plans to save the winnings and attend Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls for two years. He then hopes to transfer to Liberty University in Virginia for film studies.
(Reporting by Elwin Huffman, KOEL, Waterloo)