BYU’s School of Communications Won Many Awards in 2022, Further Proving the Excellence of the School of Communications
January-April 2022
SkillSurvey's Career Readiness Leader & Innovator Awards
The Communications Internship and Career Services Office and BYU were both recognized as a Top 10 in three of 11 categories out of over 170 participating higher education institutions. This was SkillSurvey's first ever Career Readiness Leader & Innovator Awards.
Hearst Television Features Competition
Two journalism students placed in the top 10 of the Hearst Television Features competition with the BYU journalism program landing in second place in the Hearst Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition. Ally Arnold took third place and won a $1,500 award, qualifying to compete in the National Television semi-final and the chance to move on to the national final. Her stories were about the waggle dance of the honeybee and Inktober. Harlee Hunsaker took tenth place for her stories on the BYU ID center and the Korean Wave. There were 95 entries from 57 schools submitted in the competition. The Hearst Journalism Awards Program provides support, encouragement, and assistance to journalism education at the college and university level.
Hearst Television News Competition/Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition
BYU journalism students placed sixth overall in the Hearst Television News Competition/Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition. BYU’s own Carly Wasserlein took eighth place in the competition.
Pop Culture Association Convention
Five graduate students and five undergraduate students each presented their research projects at the Popular Culture Association's (virtual) national convention April 13-16. The graduate student presenters were Nathan Hicken, Savanna Bagley, Ellice Tan, Alycia Burnett and Megs Vincent. The undergraduate student presenters were Devon McGregor, Loryn Horstmann, Kalai Leauanae, Natalie Neale and Isaac Richards. While the students presented on their own, most of these students worked in groups with other students as well. They were mentored by Scott Church throughout the process of writing and submitting their research.
MLK Essay Contest
Comms studies undergraduate student Taylor Munlin won the BYU MLK Jr. Essay Award and presented her essay at the 2022 Walk of Life sponsored by Multicultural Student Services.
BYU SAERA
BYU’s pre-comms academic advisor Randa Alvord received a BYU SAERA award for the “Respect for All Individuals” value.
American Advertising Federation (AAF) Advertising Awards (Utah ADDYs)
The School of Communications via the Adlab had an impressive showing at the AAF American Advertising Awards (the Utah ADDYs) with 20 winners, including Best of Show, nine Gold and eleven Silver awards in the student competition. The Judges remarked that they were very impressed with the student work and the quality and conceptual thinking from the students. Watch the full awards show here.
American Advertising Federation (AAF) Awards (Regional Addys)
Regional American Advertising Federation winners. Utah won big! BYU AdLab won Best of Show, two Gold and three Silver awards in the student categories.
American Advertising Federation (AAF) National Awards (Addys)
At the national Addy’s, BYU’s AdLab walked away with four Student Gold awards, the Student Best in Show award, and the Judge’s Choice award. The winning campaigns include “Burger Kingdom” - Burger King, “Greatness” - Adidas, “Dreams” - Bose (which was also recognized as the Student Best in Show) and “The Hands That Feed You” - Carhartt (which was also recognized as the Judge’s Choice in the student competition). See all the winning work at the AAF website.
American Advertising Federation (AAF) - Most Promising Multicultural Students
BYU AdLab students Madison Hill and Andrew Rhee were recognized as two of the top 50 Most Promising Multicultural Students in the country by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), and were hosted for a virtual NYC conference with mentoring, networking, workshops, agency visits, recruiting and an awards gala. Each year the selected Most Promising Multicultural Students have an opportunity to meet with professionals from top advertisers, media companies and advertising agencies at an exclusive Most Promising Multicultural Students Recruiters Expo.
International Communication Association (ICA) Conference
A paper co-authored by Brian Smith entitled, "Influencer Relations: Establishing the Concept and Process for Public Relations" has been recognized as a Top Faculty Paper at the International Communication Association (ICA) Conference in Paris. The paper was presented at the end of May. In the paper, the authors interviewed professionals who oversaw influencer relations around the country to get best practice insight. The authors were Brian Smith, Guy Golan (TCU) and Karen Freberg (Univ. of Louisville).
College Television Awards (Student Emmys)
The College Television Awards (Student Emmys) awards gala was held on Saturday, March 26, with the BYU Adlab winning the top award in the “Commercial, PSA or Promo” category. The winning entry, “Life’s Journey” - Ford Mustang, was the work of last year’s senior advertising students, Rebekah Baker, Campbell George, Asher Huskinson and Tyler Richardson. The only other two nominees in this category were also from BYU Adlab: “LA Times: Decisions” by Conner Dean, Quinn Frehner, Enoch Lui and Cam Tribe, and “Asking For It” by Lauren Finlinson, Edgar Garcia, Amy Hauck and Allie Jones. Watch the full awards show and see the winning work at the College Television Awards website.
Broadcast Education Association (BEA)
The Broadcast Education Association (BEA) has ranked BYU’s news program as the 4th best in the nation, with the sports program ranking 22nd and BYU ranking 20th overall. BEA’s overall rankings evaluate a school’s combined achievements across multiple media creative disciplines. For specific programs, BEA rated schools based on its annual Festival of Media Arts, where more than 5,000 entries from more than 300 organizations across the globe are submitted to receive awards. BYU's ranking was based on students' excellence in this festival over the past five years. Several students won awards from this year's Festival of Media Arts. All festival winners represent the top 20% of the submissions received by the BEA.
Those students who received awards had the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas on April 25th for an award ceremony. For a full list of awards, see the compiled list from the BEA website.
Honor Society Inductees
Twenty communications students were inducted on April 12 into the BYU chapter of Kappa Tau Alpha, the national honor society in journalism and mass communications. The induction took place in the Maeser Building. Students must be in the top 5 percent (seniors) or top 10 percent (juniors) of their classes to be eligible. Students inducted were Alec Pope, Alyssa Regis, Liesel Allen, Isaac Ferre, Ashley Krause, Katherine Romney, Garrett Crowley, David Bodine, Thabata Nunes de Freitas, Kirsten Manning, Parker McDermott, Gabrielle Shiozawa, Madelynn Beus, Emily Scanlan, Brooke Strong, Eliza Terry Hansen, Sara Curtis, Hannah Rigby, Anna Stratford and Brigham Tomco.
PRSSA 2022 Bateman Case Study Competition
A team of BYU public relations students (Provo team) was chosen to be a finalist in the PRSSA 2022 Bateman Case Study Competition. Of 51 submissions, eleven entries received honorable mention and three were chosen as finalists to present their campaigns to a panel of judges on May 12. BYU was the third place finalist for its “Lymphoma is a #YoungCancer” campaign.