By: Jabria Roscoe
UMTV is the recipient of six Broadcast Education Association Student Best of Festival Awards. With students and faculty from across the country submitting media projects, this year’s competition featured more than 1,300 entries from over 250 colleges.
“I was extremely excited to see that UMTV won six awards,” said UMTV station manager, Gianna Sanchez. “To have six awards at the national level really shows that UMTV is doing amazing things across the board, not just in one specific area.”
The BEA awards has eight competition categories that include audio, documentary, film and video, interactive multimedia, news, scriptwriting, sports and two-year colleges. UMTV submitted eight entries and came away with the most wins they’ve had thus far.
“I am so incredibly proud and fortunate to say that I am a member of UMTV and have been able to at least help contribute to its success,” said assistant station manager of UMTV, Jackson Dill. “Winning any award is significant but seeing three of our shows win awards and three other awards given for special projects shows how meaningful the work is that we publish,” he said.
The students who work at UMTV put in many hours to create news stories that they are proud of.
“While each award may only have a few names on them, there are countless others who go into the production of each show or package, that includes faculty, engineers, and other students,” Sanchez said.
Faculty advisor for UMTV Boriana Treadwell says the students and staff at UMTV all have a passion for broadcast journalism and the art of storytelling which drives them to do their best.
“It’s very hard work and very challenging, especially with all the COVID restrictions in place, but it’s also very rewarding,” said Treadwell. “Students who participate in UMTV don’t get paid and don’t get any credit for their hard work – but they do it and they do it with all they have because they are passionate about storytelling and making the best television they can.”
Now that all their hard work has paid off this year, the members of UMTV are ready to continue creating content and are excited to see what the future holds.
“I can’t wait to see how UMTV continues to grow in this competition each year and across all the others,” said Sanchez. “While we don’t do any of this for awards, it’s exciting and rewarding to see that we are being recognized for our accomplishments.”
See the list of UMTV winners below:
Television Weathercaster Second Place:
Jackson Dill, Dave Downey, Liam Fabre
Television Magazine Show Third Place:
Michelle Ng-Reyes, Gianna Sanchez, Julia Hecht, Ben Ezzy
Television Newscast Third Place:
Jenna Weiss, Spencer Askinazy, Tyler Walsh
TV Sports News Program Second Place:
Gianna Sanchez, Danyel De Villiers, Michelle Ng-Reyes, Brendan Reilley
TV Long Feature Reporting Third Place:
Tre’Vaughn Howard and Gianna Sanchez in Defender of the Homeless
TV Long Feature Reporting Excellent:
Cassandra Garcia in Miami Joggler
