3 Napa Students Win $2,500 For 'Unsung Heroes' Documentary Project

NAPA, CA — Three 11th-graders from Napa were awarded $2,500 and the first runner-up prize in an international competition called the Lowell Milken Center (LMC) Discovery Awards.

The competition inspires students to develop primary and secondary research projects which share the stories of Unsung Heroes from history whose accomplishments remain largely unknown to the public.

LMC’s Discovery Award provides a unique opportunity for U.S. and international students in grades 4-12 to research primary sources and use their talents to develop projects that showcase the power of one person to make positive change in the world. The actions which define the Unsung Hero’s legacy as a role model must have occurred a minimum of 20 years ago, and the project must demonstrate the impact made over time as a result of those actions.

Students must create a documentary, performance or website featuring an Unsung Hero, accompanied by an annotated bibliography and process paper. The award money is an unrestricted cash prize that can be spent at students’ discretion.

“Real heroes tower and guide,” said LMC Founder Lowell Milken. “But their stories need to be discovered and heard. And when we do, we have the opportunity to motivate new generations to aspire to values that are essential during the challenging times we face individually, as a nation and as a world community.”

For the 2021-2022 competition, the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes in Fort Scott, Kansas, awarded a total of $15,500 in cash prizes to elementary, middle and high school students.

The $2,500 First Runner-Up award went to 11th graders Dylan Arie, Gianpaolo Bautista and Isaiah Ochoa-Garcia, from New Tech High School in Napa. Their documentary, "James Braidwood: A Spark of Smoke," describes the Scottish firefighter’s pioneering work in the 1800s to help create the world’s first modern, municipal fire department.

What Braidwood calls his most groundbreaking contribution to firefighting — “the aggressive interior attack” — is still used today. The students weave library archives and news sources to piece Braidwood’s life together. A personal interview with a local retired fireman and historian fuses the eras then and now, shedding light on the science and art of firefighting.

Watch the Napa students' award-winning video here:

View all the winning projects here.