FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Most of your member benefits are accessible through your STN Dashboard. There you can find and update your membership info, register for contests, access the curriculum and find helpful link to other resources. If you need specific help on the Dashboard, watch our tutorials here!

To put it simply, no. Hosting contests costs money in many ways, from covering the staff’s time, ordering and shipping awards, and managing and maintaining technology like our Dashboard. STN only charges what we must in order to cover those expenses. When we raise prices, it is only so we can keep our organization going.

STN bases these numbers of recommendations from our advisory committee, made up of industry professionals and teachers. In broadcasts, most stories are produced by up to four people, such as the on-air talent, photographer, and producer. On television and film projects, the primary leadership roles are the producers, directors, writers, cinematographers, and lead actors. While on big budget projects this can be a large group, our advisors believed having this capped at six kept all students busy and engaged, while allowing room for others in secondary roles to take on leadership in other contests.

We are always looking to improve our programming, and expanding our contests is definitely a top priority. However, we also have to consider if we have the capacity to add more to our already busy schedule. We have to make sure each contest category has enough interest to make it successful and competitive. We have to make sure we have enough industry pros available to judge. There is so much that goes into planning each contest, and sometimes we have to go with quality or quantity.

Again, we are always looking to improve, but we can only offer as many middle school contests based on the number of middle school members we have so that we keep it competitive.

We do our best to pair a contest with an industry professional specific to that field, and we provide them with training over everything from the prompt and best practices on critiquing entries. However, due to the large number of entries, there is just no way to read through every comment and score to make sure they did everything perfectly. As professionals, we have to trust that they selected the winners based on their experience. And, let’s not forget, judging is also subjective when it comes to critiquing creative and artistic works.

We can assure you, our judges have NO BIAS when it comes to judging for or against a particular school. Many of our judges are new each year and have no relationship with the schools they are critiquing. And if there is a judge that may be familiar with a particular school, we assign them to a category where that school has not entered. However, if you know of and have proof of a judge being biased, please email shonda@studenttelevision.com.

The main factor STN chose to stay in Long Beach due to the pandemic. First, when the convention was cancelled in Washington D.C. in 2020, STN took a substantial financial hit that almost forced STN to close its doors. We made many unfortunate, but necessary steps to survive, all so that we could stay open and support our schools in a time of need. Also, at the time when there was so much unknown about COVID, we wanted to find a location we could call home while we regained balance, both logistically and financially. So choosing to stay in Long Beach for three years allowed us the opportunity to rebuild so STN could continue on and move forward. Starting in 2025, STN will begin an East Coast/West Coast rotation, making a home in two specific cities for the foreseeable future.

The reason STN does not allow work produced during the late spring and summer is for several reason, but primarily because we are a program-based organization and contests are designed to evaluate programs based on the work done during a current school calendar year. For example, many seniors graduate in the spring and are no longer students of the school. This would not accurately reflect the work being done this year. Also, not every program is afforded the time and resources to produce work in the summer. This keeps our contest as inclusive and equitable as possible.