Lyndon State Students Receive Regional Awards

One Student Heads for Nationals

May 19, 2015

Lyndon State College Electronic Journalism Arts students received recognition from two regional professional organization’s competitions. In the Boston/New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) competition, Lyndon vied against 10 larger colleges or universities from all six New England States. Additionally, Lyndon students participated in the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) annual regional competition in New England; SPJ has 12 regions nation-wide.

The NATAS named a “News 7 at 5:30pm” broadcast an Award for Excellence winner in the Newscast category. The October 21, 2014 show was produced by Katrina Floranza ’15 and directed by Adam Donnelly ’16. Tyler Dumont’s ’15 “911 Failure” piece won the Serious News category; Kevin Kelleher ’16 took first place in Sports for his piece on “CircumBurke Challenge.” The NATAS awarded honorable mentions to reporter Camille Delongis ’16 and photographer RJ Kauffman’s ’15 “Remembering Melissa” in the Serious News category, and video journalist Taylor Young’s ’15 “Hunter’s Delight” in Light News.

Kelleher’s “CircumBurke Challenge” also won first place for Sports Photography in the SPJ Region 1 Mark of Excellence competition. It now heads to the national SPJ competition to compete with the 11 other regional winners from around the country. Nathan Rivard’s ’15 profile of “Mary Azarian Artisan” was a finalist in the News & Feature Photography category. Dumont’s “911 Failure” was also a finalist in the In-Depth category; Young’s “Hunter’s Delight” was a finalist in the TV Feature category.

NATAS is a professional service organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and related media and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, educational and technical achievements within the television industry, best known for the coveted Emmy® Award. The Student Awards are part of the Boston/New England chapter’s annual regional Emmy competition.

The Society of Professional Journalists is the nation’s most broad-based journalism organization, dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior. The Mark of Excellence Awards honors the best in collegiate journalism. Judged at the regional and national level, the annual competition offers 39 categories in newspapers, magazines, photography, radio, television and online journalism.