The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s National Broadcasting Society (NBS) chapter received the 2021 Model Chapter Award from the National Electronic Media Association for finding a way to safely stay active in NBS during one of the heights of the pandemic.
NBS members John Walsh, Sarah Person and Mizuki Sugito met on Zoom most Thursdays of the fall 2021 semester. They wanted to keep learning and practicing their broadcasting skills and after a few weeks of chatting they came up with a podcast episode idea.
Walsh, a junior broadcasting major, is from Omaha; Person, a sophomore sports media and communication major, is from Polk, NE; and Sugito, a senior broadcasting major, is from Tokyo.
“We were talking one day and realized that we all grew up so differently with Sarah being from a small town, John being from a bigger city and me growing up in Japan,” Mizuki said. “We just thought it was interesting that what seems normal to one person might not be to someone else.”
For the rest of the semester the group pulled together ideas for their podcast episode so they could uncover the differences and similarities they’d encountered throughout their lives so far.
“I’m proud of this group of students for finding a way to practice broadcasting in the midst of the pandemic,” NBS faculty adviser, Laurie Lee said. “They worked together to stay active in NBS, when other chapters across the nation couldn’t.”
