High school students stormed the Arkansas Capitol on Friday and invited lawmakers to comment on issues such as gun control and gender equality.
The students were competing for C-SPAN's StudentCam competition, which awards $100,000 annually. C-SPAN asked students to create five- to seven-minute documentaries about the issue they most want the candidates to discuss during the 2016 presidential campaign.
"Our teacher makes us do all kinds of crazy things -- stuff that we wouldn't think to do ourselves," said Emily Conly, a junior at Lakeside High School in Hot Springs. "He brought it up and asked, 'Do you want a voice? What do you want the presidential candidates to address?'"
Conly questioned Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, on gun control after an Arkansas Legislative Council meeting. Clark said areas with more gun violence typically have greater gun control.
"I thought that they did a great job," Clark said after the interview. "I think they had some pointed questions and asked what people wanted to know about."
Meanwhile, Sarah Stewart, a junior at Lakeside, asked Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, how older women can empower younger girls.
"Set examples and speak to them," Irvin said. "Just be open and accessible."
Stewart's documentary focuses on the pay gap between men and women.
"I was wondering if there was a correlation between the gender pay gap and low self-esteem," she said. "Since women got their rights fully in the 1920s, why is there still a gap 100 years later and how could it be closed?"
Irvin, who worked as a news editor for KATV, Channel 7, in Little Rock, said she was excited by the high school students' projects.
"If you want a good example of public school education, here's a great example of it," Irvin said. "These are the types of avenues that are really going to make a difference for our state in the future."
In addition to documentaries, Chris Slaton, a teacher at Lakeside High School, said his classes -- about 90 students in all -- create commercials and broadcast sports events live with a mobile production trailer.
"We broadcast a football game and the School Board bought in," he said. "That's how we started."
Now, the students work on a variety of projects.
"I kind of dipped my toes in the water that first year and fell in love with it," Conly said. "It's the film side and the artistic side, but also getting people's stories, hearing them and then delivering them in an effective way that grabs people's attention."
SundayMonday on 11/23/2015