By Al Quartemont, LCU News
GRAPEVINE, Texas (LCU News) – Students from the Louisiana Christian University Convergence Media and Theatre departments brought home two first-place finishes and one fourth-place finish at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, Feb. 25.
Competing against other member schools in the on-site contests, LCU finished first in the 12-hour news and 12-hour audio challenges. The school’s 24-hour film challenge team finished fourth.
“We continue to be amazed by the level our students reach in these challenge competitions,” said Jeff Young, associate professor of media production at LCU. “It gives them the chance to experience deadline pressures and see how they stack up against students from other schools. It also allows them to see the bigger picture about the Christian media industry, and we see tremendous growth in all of them after this experience.”
The news challenge team was made of junior Cayden Walls, senior Joseph Johnson and freshman Kayley McCarty. They were required to produce a same-day news story focused on the potential impact of the new Trump Administration on the Christian media industry.
The audio challenge team, which consisted of sophomores Adán Wright and Danny Cobb along with contributions from voice actors, seniors Cheyenne Carbaugh and Caleb Cole and freshman Logan Carver, brought home the first-place award for their production of “Second Chance,” a war-themed presentation where the main character returns home to his family after being injured in battle.
Finally, the film challenge team made up of Cole, Carver, sophomore Kayla Condrey and freshman Nick Morrow brought home fourth place for their production of “Forget Me Not.” Contributing to the project as actors were Walls, Carbaugh and freshman Sophie Geraci.
LCU’s faculty advisers for the team challenges were Jeff Young, Al Quartemont and Tabitha Huffman. LCU has competed at the annual NRB Convention since 2009.
NRB is an international association of Christian communicators with more than 1,100 member organizations reaching millions of viewers, listeners and readers. The annual convention brings together professionals from Christian and other religious media from around the world. LCU is a member of iNRB, the academic division of NRB.
