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Thursday, June 21, 2007

Moriarty Students Honored For Film

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
    Two Moriarty Middle School girls showed the documentary film they made at the Smithsonian Institution last week.
    The film by Ashley Page and Ryan Andrews-Armijo won first prize at a state competition and was named the Outstanding Entry for the State of New Mexico at the National History Day competition in Maryland.
    At the National History Day competition, held June 13, students submit historical papers, presentations and documentaries for a number of prizes. For example, full scholarships from four universities were given, including the Chaminade University of Honolulu.
    Although they didn't win the top prizes, the girls met students from across the United States and U.S. residents from military families stationed overseas. On a short trip to Washington, D.C., they also got some firsthand experience in politics.
    "We got to meet Senator (Pete) Domenici ... he stopped by before we presented and said that he was proud and stuff," said Andrews-Armijo, who created the documentary with Page, her cousin.
    The girls' trip was the result of quite a bit of hard work. They spent more than 100 hours editing their documentary, "The 1966 Texas Western Miners: Breaking the Unwritten Rules."
    Although the film is only about 10 minutes long, it is the culmination of about four months of research.
    Not only that, but as the girls progressed from one competition to the next, they also redid significant portions of the film and completely revised their process paper, a document required for the competition.
    As an unexpected reward for their work, the girls also got to see the gym where their film has its climax: Cole Field House, also known as the Cole Student Activities Building, at the University of Maryland.
    That is the gymnasium where the Texas Western Miners, the first college basketball team to start five African-American players, won the college championship in 1966. By coincidence, the national competition awards ceremony was also held there.
    Both avid basketball players, the girls played a pickup game with some of the other participants on a court outside the dormitory where they stayed.
    "We played against some kids from Alabama and some kids from Connecticut ... they were really nice and they were friendly ... they were happy to meet other people too," Andrews-Armijo said.
    The girls also heard a speech by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns at the competition, and toured the office of Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., in Washington. They also watched a debate on the Senate floor.
    Andrews-Armijo said the debate was about energy policy. The girls noticed that a senator from Oklahoma would regularly address a senator from California as "junior senator."
    "We kind of noticed it, but we didn't understand why," Andrews-Armijo said.
    The girls' history teacher, Bethany Vaughn, who accompanied them on the trip, explained that the senator from Oklahoma might have addressed the other senator as "junior" as a way to undermine the California senator's arguments.