Two University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Journalism & Mass Communications students placed in the top 20 in the second of four Hearst Journalism Awards multimedia competitions.
Junior Adam Warner of Prior Lake, Minnesota, placed 11th and sophomore JP Davis of Birmingham, Alabama, placed 13th in the Multimedia II/News competition.
Warner and Davis have both traveled abroad with professor Bruce Thorson as part of the Global Eyewitness program. It was through this program that they both traveled to Nicaragua to create their winning submissions.
Warner’s winning submission “Gray Water” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDLCw627Tyw&feature=youtu.be) tells the story of Mario Alexander and Marcia Ines Castillo, two fishermen in one of the poorest, most densely populated neighborhoods in Managua, Nicaragua. Lake Managua was once Central America’s most polluted lake, but a new water treatment plant is now handling a portion of the waste from the city of a million people.
Each day, Alexander and Ines Castillo, along with countless other fishermen, go out on the lake and pull fish from the contaminated water. Some believe the plant has made the lake safe enough to eat the fish, others are simply too poor to buy uncontaminated food.
Davis’s winning submission “The Prodigal Sons” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t5HdgNx7Jk) tells the story of young Nicaraguans’ journey from a life of crime and addiction on the street to rehabilitation and fellowship at El Hijo De Prodigo, a drug addiction rehabilitation center in Matiguas, Nicaragua.
The story follows Amanda Ecklessdafer, an American volunteer worker who works at the center to rehabilitate street kids. Many children, ages 8 to 16, flee to the streets to escape abusive home lives.
They spend their days robbing and begging for money to support their addictions to alcohol, glue and other drugs. The center, founded by notorious former gangster Don Juan Sosa, uses fellowship, learning and skill building to rehabilitate the children so they’re comfortable and skilled enough to return to the city, get a job and live a clean and sober life.
Davis held an internship at Hear Nebraska and continues to contribute to the website. He’s very involved in the Lincoln music scene, working on photography and videography projects as well as playing in bands.
The CoJMC is currently in fifth place overall in multimedia. Two multimedia competitions remain in news and team reporting. CoJMC student Andrew Barry placed 11th in the Multimedia I/ Features competition. (http://journalism.unl.edu/news/student-places-top-20-hearst-multimedia-onefeatures-competition)
The 2015-2016 Hearst Journalism Awards Program is held in 108 member colleges and universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs. The awards program consists of five writing, two photojournalism, one radio, two television and four multimedia competitions. The program awards up to $500,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends annually.
