Local Students Honored For Documentary

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Three Masterman high school students have been honored with a state citation for their award-winning film on local African-American history.

Civil rights historian and author Wynne Alexander read the state proclamation honoring Laura Garcia, Catherine Breiner, and Sam Kopansky. When the three students were sophomores they created a documentary film on the impact of WDAS on the national civil rights movement. "When we started, we barely scratched the surface," said Kopansky.

Breiner said they didn't listen to the station before doing their film. "Afterwards we started getting into the station and started researching and we saw just how much it impacted the city, and the civil rights movement and really the country," said Breiner.

The students were proud of the work they did. "It evolved from kind of a small school project to a big, time-consuming, amazing part of our sophomore year," said Garcia.

The film won local and state awards and competed nationally for National History Day.

Listen to the podcast of the proclamation

Reported by: Karin Phillips, KYW Newsradio