RICHMOND, Va. — A Richmond student's documentary on the Declaration of Independence earned him national recognition and a cash prize in C-SPAN's annual StudentCam competition.
Devansh Kumar, a student at Maggie L. Walker Governor's School, was named a 2026 third-prize winner and will receive $750 for his documentary, "Shapes of Suppression: Partisan Gerrymandering in America."
The competition, held in recognition of the United States' 250th anniversary, challenged middle and high school students across the country to explore either the Declaration of Independence's influence on a key moment in America's 250-year history or how the values in the foundational document connect to a contemporary issue impacting them or their communities.
Devansh's submission was one of more than 1,800 documentaries entered by nearly 4,000 students from 30 states and Washington, D.C. High school students competed regionally, while middle school students were judged on a national basis. The grand-prize winner was selected from all regions and grade levels.
Videos were evaluated by a panel of educators and C-SPAN representatives based on how well they examined the competition's theme, quality of expression, inclusion of varying perspectives, and effective use of C-SPAN programming.
Devansh told CBS 6 that he heard about the competition last year, made a documentary and won honorable mention. He entered again this year with a new topic and was interested in relating redistricting and partisan gerrymandering back to the Declaration of Independence.
“With redistricting and partisan gerrymandering, I kept seeing it on like the news and while I was brainstorming topics, this really stood out to me," Devansh shared. "I took redistricting and I broke it down into a couple of topics and like key points for an outline and then taking some advice from my peers and one of our teachers here, Mr. Yu, who was also featured in the documentary, I got a full outline and I talked to some other experts on the topic, who I also interviewed, from universities and in the General Assembly, and that was really nice and I got an expert's perspectives on it just to get an objective view and sort of analysis of what redistricting really is."
In total, Devansh estimates the project required between 30 and 40 hours of work.
Maggie Walker faculty members honored Devansh in class Friday morning in front of his peers and mother with flowers and a certificate of achievement.
“To be recognized like this, it helps motivate me and I know other students to keep working hard and to keep powering through all our goals," Devansh said.
Devansh told CBS 6 that he has a wide array of interests when it comes to choosing his future career path.
"I'm really interested in the structures of government and how policy has changed and how it continues to be affected by the values of America," he said. "So I find interest in both government and even science and medicine, I feel like that's very interesting."
All 150 winning videos can be viewed by clicking here.
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