Rider Students, Staff Honored at National Broadcasting Society Competition
Patty Wittenburg’s team studied the tapes from the University of Miami. If they wanted to play in the big leagues, they had to prepare themselves for what they were up against.
After all, the University of Miami has one of the greatest sports broadcasting programs in the country, according to Scott Alboum, a Miami alumnus and video technologies coordinator at Rider University. Alboum showed The Rider Sports Corner crew clips of UM’s SportsDesk.
The Rider Sports Corner evolved from COM 380 taught by Alboum last year, creating 12 episodes in 14 weeks. “This group was really dedicated to making this happen,” Alboum said.
Their hard work paid off when they earned a share of first place in the Video Sports Program category for their episode Rider Sports Corner Best of Show at the National Broadcasting Society’s (NBS) 46th Annual Electronic Media Competition. The Rider Sports crew tied with the University of Miami’s SportsDesk for top honors.
“We are a small school. To get ourselves up against this type of school, nationally known for broadcasting, is incredible,” said Alboum, who serves as the adviser for Rider’s NBS chapter.
The crew included Wittenburg, a senior Journalism major; Sean Rainey, a senior Communication major; Alex Corini, a junior Communication major; Bryan Persons, a senior Communication major; and Tom Mellaci, a sophomore Communication and Advertising dual major.
Seven students from Rider’s NBS and Alboum attended the awards ceremony during the National Broadcasting Society’s annual convention, held from March 24 through 29, in New York City.
“Just being nominated – being up against them was amazing, and being tied with them was even more amazing,” Wittenburg added.
In total, Rider’s NBS chapter took home six honors, including three first-place awards. Meighan Hogate, a senior Communication major, and Rainey nabbed first place in the Comedy Program category for Cornucopia of Disaster. Hogate, who directed the documentary, also received first place for the Movie Trailer category. Hogate described the film as a “mock-umentary” that tells the story of a student filmmaker doing a documentary about another student filmmaker. The film satirizes the seemingly ubiquitous documentary format.
“A documentary should report on what is actually going on, but many directors, like Michael Moore, lead people into believing what they want them to believe,” he explained. Hogate’s film was recently screened at the New Jersey State Film Festival in Cape May.
Rider’s chapter also took home three honorable mentions. Kelly Dixon, a junior Communication and Journalism major, and Gina Grosso, a sophomore Communication major, received an honorable mention in the Video Magazine Program category for Rider Right Now: Look Back On Lifestyles. Corini, Persons and Alboum received honorable mention in the Video Instructional/Industrial/Promotional Production category for a film produced for Eggert’s Crossing Village, a low-income housing development in Lawrence Township. In addition, Rainey received honorable mention for the Video Sports Segment category for Rider Ice Hockey Training Camp.
At the convention, Grosso was also elected to serve as the national vice president for Student Services for the National Advisory Council of NBS. This year, Grosso served as the student representative on the council and also worked on the planning committee for the convention in New York. In her new role, Grosso will work with student representatives from all the chapters, help determine the location for the next convention and identify ways to make the NBS Web site more user-friendly, she explained.
Alboum, who also worked on the planning committee for the convention, was elected to serve as the National Vice President for Communication for NBS, and was named the 2008-09 NBS Professional Member of The Year.
As national vice president for Communication, Alboum will assist the national office in communicating to all chapters, and communicate to the media and publicize about achievements of members.
“This was a huge honor to get,” said Alboum about the Member of The Year Award. “I was a NBS member as a student and adviser for three years.”
