South San Francisco, CA May 8, 2023
Spotlight on South San Francisco’s Jizelle Oliva, Mia Tolentino, and Lori Huang
Photo credit Skyline College News
Three students from Skyline Middle College have received much-deserved awards and accolades for their critical thinking skills, research, and filmmaking expertise in the C-SPAN StudentCam national student documentary competition. Jizelle Oliva, Mia Tolentino, and Lori Huang won an honorable mention this year, on their third-year entry, after devoting over 3 months creating this 6-minute documentary. The question posed to those who participated, which included 3000 students from 43 US states, Kenya, and the UAE, was ‘If you were a newly elected member of Congress, which issue would be your first priority and why?’
Their subject, Health is Wealth, chronicles the lack of medical care that has been available to people of color, highlighting some of the US histories that have caused this division which continues to this day. “Our documentary highlights issues of racial and social disparities in healthcare such as financial situations, citizenship status, housing situations, cultural and language barriers, and more, which particularly impact communities of color all around the nation. In the midst of the global health crisis, this issue is more critical now than ever. This is why we decided to further research this topic and discover how it can come to impact our own families.” Jizelle Oliva said.
On April 26, 2023 our South San Francisco City Council presented a Certificate of Recognition honoring Lori Huang, Jizelle Oliva, and Mia Tolentino for receiving Honorable Mention in C-SPANS’s StudentCAM documentary competition by Mayor Flor Nicolas. These South San Francisco students had the opportunity to interview Mayor Nicolas for their documentary as well as the Director of Equity-Inclusion-Diversity, Ms. Jocelyne Vistan, and Dr. Heather San Miguel, both representing Kaiser Permanente. To view this City Council presentation and to hear the students describe their experience CLICK HERE.
“I am proud to have worked and researched an ongoing topic citizens face daily around ensuring a healthy life for everyone. It is our time to help all generations supplement a safe and affordable healthcare system for all of us before it’s too late.” Mia said in an interview with their advisor. Lori, who was also interviewed for the Skyline College News said “It has been a great experience to create a documentary and contribute to an important topic of discussion. Participating in the C-SPAN competition gave me a platform where my voice could be heard and make a difference through our documentary.”
“Our documentary entitled “Health is Wealth” was awarded the Honorable Mention prize, earning the student’s recognition on the CSPAN Student Cam webpage, social media platforms, and a monetary cash prize,” Jizelle explains. “It is already rewarding enough to educate ourselves and the younger generations on these issues, but to receive all this recognition is better than anything we’ve imagined.”
“Dr. San Miguel and I are so proud of the three of you!” Kaiser Permanente’s Ms. Vistan exclaimed to the three young ladies. “Your voice and efforts are so important in furthering the work of reducing healthcare disparities in our BIPOC communities.”
While often our community gives attention to those things that do not work, or wrongdoing by some of our youth, we really need to highlight and give praise and accolades to all those students who make South San Francisco shine.
Jizelle, Mia, and Lori you are our heroes!
We wish you continued success in your future!
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Kaiser Permanente Public Affairs Director Stacey Wagner contributed to this article.
To view the student’s video CLICK HERE
To view the City Council Presentation CLICK HERE
To learn more about C-SPAN Student Cam CLICK HERE
To learn more about Skyline College Middle School CLICK HERE
To learn more about Kaiser Permanente CLICK HERE
To learn more about the South San Francisco City Council Meetings CLICK HERE
To share more uplifting stories with Everything South City CLICK HERE