USU Journalism Students Take Regional 'Student Emmys' in Top Three Categories

Utah State University journalism students achieved something they have never done before: placed within the top three in each of the top three categories at the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (the “Student Emmys”) on Sept. 9.

USU broadcast students won the College Magazine Program category with Cache Rendezvous, a program recorded in Spring 2023, where they covered environmental issues facing Cache Valley. Several broadcast students worked on the production under faculty members Brian Champagne and Chris Garff.

The entry winning the College News Report (serious or light) was written and broadcast by Sarah Murphy titled, "Football Lawsuit." Murphy is now an anchor at Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX.

The College Newscast winner was an edition of A-TV News recorded Feb. 14, 2023, and produced by Paige Johnson. She learned about the award when her phone lit up with group texts congratulating her after she got off work. She said the magnitude of it didn’t hit her until the next day when her newscast class stood up and greeted her with applause.

“Honestly it feels kind of surreal,” she said, “did that really happen to me? … It feels really cool to win an award up against an actual school of journalism.”

The host for the award ceremony, Krystle Henderson, an anchor at Phoenix NBC affiliate KPNX, said: “There really is no better way to launch your career in the field of television arts and sciences. This is your moment you have worked so hard for.”

She told the audience that NATAS received a record 291 entries for college and high school categories. USU Journalism and Communications went into the evening with seven entries. “That’s not the extraordinary part,” Champagne said. “USU students have done that before.”

What they have not done before is place in all three of the top programs: college magazine program, college news report and college newscast.

“These awards are extraordinary because USU’s program is a fraction of the size of BYU and the powerhouse Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Communication at Arizona State University,” Champagne said.

Twenty-one total categories, including directing, audio and fiction, are also part of the annual contest.

SPA awards are not technically Emmys, but given by the same organization, including using the Emmy logo.

“Most students refer to them as Student Emmys,” Champagne said.

Newscast co-advisers Garff and Champagne vow to keep the program’s trajectory until it, too, becomes an “actual school of journalism.”