Cue the lights and roll out the red carpet; congratulations are in order for five CAMD students on their recent New England Emmy wins in the student production awards highlighting their exceptional work in journalism and video production. Under the leadership of Teaching Professor Carlene Hempel and Professor of the Practice Mike Beaudet, Northeastern students are set up for success in the field of journalism. The School of Journalism has been submitting to the Emmy Awards since 2015 and has been well represented at the awards ever since.
Danae Bucci, Katarina Torres Radisic, and Alyssa Lukpat earned top recognition in the Magazine Program for Panama: The Continental Crossroads and Matt Cunha earned top recognition in the Arts & Entertainment/Cultural Affairs category for his project, Extreme Sports in Panama.
Both of these projects were completed in Professor Hempel’s Reporting on the Ground class. This groundbreaking course allows students to dive deep into a country’s culture, political issues, history, and struggles. The students visit the country and work around the clock to report on their pieces. Following their arrival home the students work diligently to collaborate, edit, and design their magazine and video project. “It’s an enormous amount of work for all of us, but as a result, we are all so bonded together. To then see them gain recognition for all the work they put in is indescribable,” explained Hempel.
As a veteran professor of Northeastern’s unique Dialogue of Civilizations program, Hempel had the idea to create a semester-long course about a topic or country, but only traveling to the country for the duration of Spring Break. After a successful first trip in 2018 to Granada, Spain, the embedded class continued in 2019 to Cuba and in 2020 to Panama.
The trip to Panama took place February 28-March 9, 2020, just days before international travel was halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Northeastern’s early Spring Break allowed the students and faculty to travel and return home safely before the shutdown. “We still marvel at the fact that we were able to go,” added Hempel. “In some ways it buoyed us through the start of the pandemic because we had this incredible experience together and then spent months working on the final product, which is the magazine Panama Up Close. It gave us something meaningful to do together, which meant the world to the group,” said Hempel.
Gianna Barberia, was also recognized by the Emmys in two categories: News Report: Serious News for her project, Northeastern University Responds to Covid-19 and Talent – News or Sport, for her News Reel in Multimedia Journalism. Gianna was a student in Professor Beaudet’s Video News Reporting and Producing course.
Over the past few years, video storytelling has been a paramount element in the Journalism curriculum. “All of our students are exposed to it early on and then we offer a variety of courses that allow them to develop their video storytelling skills,” explained Beaudet. Video storytelling classes at Northeastern include Experimental Video Storytelling and News Documentary Production.
“I am so proud of what these students accomplished. They produced compelling video news stories and they completed their work during a pandemic, which only underscores their adaptability and perseverance,” concluded Beaudet.
The 2022 embedded program will take place in Venice, Italy.
Learn more about the student Emmy winners by clicking each student’s name.