Howard University Students Take Home First-Place Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
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Posted By: S. Moore on November 28, 2023 WASHINGTON – On November 2, the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) announced that several current and former students from Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications won NATAS Student Production Awards. The students, who are in the school’s Department of Media, Journalism and Film, were recognized for exemplary work in the following categories: Newscast, News Report – Serious News, and Fiction – Short Form (Film). The Student Production Awards are annually given to students from colleges, universities and high schools from throughout the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia for excellence in the production of news and programs. This is the third consecutive year Howard students received the first-place honor. “This is a wonderful validation of all the great work done by our student journalists and filmmakers in the Cathy Hughes School of Communications,” said Ingrid Sturgis, M.A., associate professor and chair of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film. “The NATAS Student Production Awards recognize the creativity, dedication, and the skills the students learn in class. We celebrate the student winners, as well as the faculty who mentor them.” The Newscast honor went to NewsVision, which is written, reported, and produced by student journalists. The winning Howard students, who graduated earlier this year, include: Shanell Holback, producer; Evin Guilford, director; Nylah Lee, technical director; Lindsey Desir, co-anchor; and Makailah Gause, co-anchor. See the winning entry on YouTube. The News Report- Serious News award went to “DC Voters Make Their Voices Heard at the Polls,” a midterm election day story that profiled a first-time voter. The report was written and produced by Kendall Lanier, another 2023 graduate. She is now a news and sport reporter at a news station in Lincoln, Nebraska. “I am honored to be a recipient of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Student Production Award, Serious News Category,” Lanier said. “While I was working on this story, I uncovered different reporting elements that I hadn't used before. Professor Thomas pushed me with this story because she saw its potential. It feels so rewarding to see all of my hard work pay off.” The winning film category entry, “Addis, My Father,” was directed by Diva Muanza, a second-year graduate student in the department’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in filmmaking program, under the leadership of Montre Missouri, Ph.D. “Addis, My Father,” is about the silence maintained between a father and daughter who work in an empty clock & antique repair shop. Howard University is the only HBCU with an MFA program. All production award entries in journalism were produced in the capstone broadcast journalism class, NewsVision, under the instruction of broadcast news veteran Jennifer Thomas, M.A., associate professor, and journalism sequence coordinator for the Department of Media, Journalism, and Film. The intensive course is one of two capstone courses required of all journalism majors and features enterprise reporting in diverse communities for broadcast and/or online platforms. Other students in the Spring 2023 NewsVision cohort for best newscast were Braxton Babb, Victoria Baker, Summer Brown, Robyn Evans, and Trevonae Williams. “NewsVision is an integral part of our collegiate journalists’ academic trajectory, as it is the culminating course that mirrors daily expectations and deadline-driven outcomes of working in the broadcast journalism industry,” said Thomas, a former CNN executive producer and AEJMC Scripps Howard Teacher of the Year. “Our goal is for them to easily transition from classroom to newsroom and control room under our school’s motto, ‘Excellence Without Excuse,’ and to diversify the media landscape. Thankfully, we have been successful. Our alumni are award-winning media professionals on the local and national level, entrepreneurs, and communications scholars.” NewsVision is a partnership between the Cathy Hughes School of Communication and WHUT-TV, the Howard University public television station which broadcasts to more than 2.5 million viewers in the Washington metropolitan area. Their work is also distributed through the Howard University News Service and in partnership with the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a coalition of more than 200 Black press outlets across the country. SOURCE The Dig If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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