Mass communication students take awards at NRB
Posted by The Skyliner on March 17th, 2010Rachel Ham
Staff Writer
Students and faculty from North Greenville University’s Mass Communication Department recently attended the annual National Religious Broadcasters Conference in Nashville, Tenn. from Feb. 27 to March 3. Twenty students from NGU attended the conference as volunteers or media challenge team members.
Michael Oostdyk, Josh Hilket, Michael Cavalear and Justin Robinson received first place in a short film challenge for their film Potentia.
With speakers such as Chuck Colson, Mike Huckabee and Kay Arthur, this year’s conference provided insight into integrating faith and media.
The NGU challenge teams did well in their team and individual competitions. In the 36-DV challenge, teams had 36 hours to write, shoot, and edit a five minute short film based on a scripture passage. Michael Oostdyk, senior broadcast media, Michael Cavalear, senior broadcast media, Justin Robinson, freshman broadcast media, and Joshua Hilkert, senior broadcast media, participated in the 36-DV challenge and won first place. Shur Gopal was the team’s advisor. The team members won gift certificates, scholarship money to Regent University’s School of Communication and individual trophies.
“This was my first time going to NRB, and it was an incredible experience,” Cavalear said.
Justin Salinas, senior mass communication, Ariel Seppala, senior interdisciplinary studies, and Paul James, senior broadcast media, participated in the 36-DA challenge with Rick Sparks as their team advisor. In the 36-DA challenge, teams had to create an audio feature about the NRB conference. The team from NGU chose to use the Great Commission as their inspiration and won second place for their project.
Oostdyk also participated in a few of the individual challenges, winning second place in the Internet Web Content and Design contest and third place in the TV Field Production-Narrative contest.
Clayton Thornton, junior broadcast media, won first place in the TV Studio News contest for his work with Vision 48 News.
Julie Atkins, senior print media, was one of the several students that worked as a volunteer at NRB. Atkins worked at the Media Center and help people check into the conference.
“I really enjoyed this job because I was able to meet many important and well-known people as well as a number of international members of the press,” Atkins said about her first time attending NRB.
Although the NRB conferences are geared towards students studying broadcast media, attending the conference can be beneficial to print media majors as well.
“My expectations were surpassed and [I] gained some wonderful experiences, made some great contacts and learned a lot about media and faith,” Atkins said.
Linwood Hagin, Mass Communication Department chair, was one of several faculty members who attended this year’s conference. Hagin encourages students to take part in their particular major’s conferences and seminars. NRB especially provides great opportunities for mass communication students.
“The annual NRB national conference allows students and faculty to network with Christian media professionals, exhibitors and nationals from around the world. Students have secured internships, jobs and career-launching opportunities at NRB,” Hagin said.
To learn more about the annual NRB conferences, visit www.nrb.com.
Tags: Spring 2010, Vol. 110 - Issue 7