2026 Awards

Congratulations to our award-winning students and faculty!

Student Awards

February 2026

Gold Winners

Tobacco Free FL
STC 434 Advertising Campaigns class taught by Professors Meryl Blau and Karen Udler Britell

Silver Winners

Own Every Second
Maya Bonham

Sans Libertad
Lucia Moscarella, Samantha Gautier and Charlie Goldman

Healband
Valentina Arboleda, Lucia Moscarella, and Avery Seibert

Punctuation for the Mind
Serafina Munno

Duolingo DuoLounge
Xiara Lemoine, Paige Mason, and Meghan Schorr

Holiday Bailout
Sara Kagan and Ben McKeon

Not Milk(Ed)
Ashley Seawall

Student Interactive Multimedia Competition – Emerging Media & Technology Category

1st Place: Answer Campus: First Semester; Charlotte Yates, Daniele Montefiori, Barbara Griffin & Meredith de la Torre, University of Miami

Graduate Student Competition – Interactive Multimedia

1st Place: Saying their Names: The Virtual Experience Team; Saying their Names: The Virtual Experience Team, University of Miami

Student News Competition – Television Hard News Reporting Category

1st Place: Miami Street Medicine; Harvey Duplock, University of Miami

Student News Competition – Television Hard News Magazine Category

1st Place: Hometown Heroes: 2025 Edition; Katelyn Kucharski, Delanie Haddad & Gracie Palmer, University of Miami
 
3rd Place: Breaking Barriers: 2025 Edition; Ximena Hidalgo, Chris Perez & Jordyn Minnis, University of Miami
 

Student News Competition – Television Newscast (3 Days a Week or Less)

2nd Place: NewsVision: March 6, 2025; Katelyn Kucharski, Delanie Haddad, Ximena Hidalgo & Chris Perez, University of Miami
 
 

January 2026

Student Category Winners: 

Jane Wineman and Manuela Franco – CeraVe (link to submission HERE)

 

American Advertising Federation Most Promising Students Class of 2026 
 
Vrinda Gupta

faculty Awards

Dr. Nick Carcioppolo, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, along with candidates and graduates of the Communication, Ph.D. program including Geyi Wang, Kaixu Yuan, Zixiao Yang and Dongya Wang published “When Humor Appeals Fail and When They Succeed: Using Latent Profile Analysis to Identify Audience Receptivity to Humorous Messages.” They received the Top Paper Award by the National Communication Association.

The research examines why humor works for some audiences but not others, identifying distinct audience profiles that help explain when humorous messaging persuades, and when it can backfire.