LANSDALE –North Penn Television and its students have won a Student Television Award for Excellence from the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) at the awards ceremony held Thursday, April 26 at Neuman University. North Penn High School seniors Nathan Hegel, Andrew Ahlquist and Alex Bauer received top honors in the Arts/Entertainment/Cultural Affairs category for “The Dude Report.” “The Dude Report” is a segment shown in the weekly morning show at North Penn High School, “Mornings.”
The Mid-Atlantic Student Television competition consisted of nine different categories including: Newscast, News Story/General Assignment, Arts/Entertainment/Cultural Affairs, Sports, Public Service Announcement, Public & Community Affairs, Writing, Talent, and Editor. There were over 60 entries submitted from schools across the Mid-Atlantic region which encompasses Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and parts of Ohio.
To be nominated for the NATAS award, committees of industry professionals pre-select the entries out of hundreds of other applications to move onto the judging rounds. Out of the five nominations for each category, one entry is selected as the winner.
“When you hear someone say it’s an honor to be nominated, it’s an actual honor to be nominated because it’s selected out of hundreds of other nominations,” said Mr. Bob Gillmer, the Coordinator of Communications Media for the North Penn School District.
Winning entries are selected for the quality of the shooting, editing, and creativity of each package.
“What’s interesting is that at the end of the day it’s all about the story telling,” said Gillmer
In addition to the Student Television Award for Excellence, North Penn Television and its students were also honored to be selected as nominees in the following categories:
Newscast – Sadeiah Matthews, Laura Delongis, Brian Kissig and Tyler Skeeters
News Story/General Assignment – Steve Cameron
Arts/Entertainment/Cultural Affairs – Dylan Almeida
Public Service Announcement – Brian Kissig and Dan Grundy (separate nominations)
Talent – Emilie Ikeda
Editor – Brian Kissig
“It was exciting to get recognized for our hard work,” says NPTV career study student and nominee Emilie Ikeda, who is attending American University in the fall for communications.
During the awards ceremony, television professionals Joyce Evans, Anchor/Reporter (FOX29), Tim Furlong, Reporter (NBC Philadelphia), and Brad Nau, Sr. EP Special Projects (Comcast SportsNet), spoke to the students and advisors about the industry and congratulated them on their efforts. Students then had the opportunity to watch nominations and winning entries.
“It’s really difficult because we live in our own bubble and just know what we do all the time, so it’s really great to see the work of other high schools and see what direction they take on videos,” explained Gillmer.
Since 2003, North Penn Television and its students have won 13 Student Television Awards for Excellence from the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of NATAS. NATAS awards Emmys© to broadcast television stations across the country for outstanding work in television journalism. More information about NATAS can be found at http://www.natasmid-atlantic.org or http://www.emmyonline.tv . The entries for the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Student Television Awards competition can be viewed at http://www.schooltube.com/channel/midatlantic .