From Rowan University

The College of Communication & Creative Arts held its 6^th annual Student Awards & Showcase program April 21, an event honoring standout graduating students, returning students who received college-based scholarships and exceptional work produced throughout the year.

CCCA Dean Sanford Tweedie said the program’s dual purpose – recognition and exhibition – is important because it rewards students for hard work throughout their college career and provides parents and other visitors an opportunity to see what the college is truly about.

The CCCA welcomed some 250 attendees to the midday program, a celebration of accomplishment and promise in the Eynon Ballroom of the Chamberlain Student Center.

“It’s always a thrill for parents and loved ones to come out and for us to have them out,” Tweedie said. “Even if they’ve seen the work – and sometimes they haven’t – this is the one time all year when they can see it in the context of all that we, as a college, produce collectively. It’s an exciting celebration.”

Tables filling one half of the ballroom exhibited the work of dozens of students, many of whom expect to pursue careers in fields they knew little about before attending Rowan but who will graduate May 9 prepared and excited about their future.

“I’ve developed a passion,” said journalism major Matt Kass, the departing news editor for The Whit, Rowan’s student newspaper.

Kass said he understands the financial difficulties that many American newspapers face – and the resulting declines in job opportunities at them — but is undeterred by either the changing journalistic landscape, which is also creating opportunities, or by attacks on media for promulgating “fake news” when story coverage isn’t favorable.

“The way you combat this idea of ‘fake news’ is by delivering stories that help people better understand the world around them,” Kass said.

Peter M. Chamalian, a graduating Radio, Television & Film student who earned the Wanda Kaleta Award for Excellence in Cinema & Media Studies, was part of a team from Diana Nicolae’s Documentary Production course that is making a film called “Reberth” about a controversial plan to build a massive dock on Grand Cayman Island to accommodate ever larger cruise ships.

Chamalian proposed the idea for the documentary after living on the Caribbean island for a year. He and three classmates visited Grand Cayman for 11 days this semester to shoot video, interview islanders and explore the effects of such a dock on the island’s economy and environment.

“It’s a very hot topic on the island,” said Chamalian, the film’s director/producer. “The government wants to encourage more cruise tourism but there’s a very real concern about threats to the natural reef and the decline of reef fish populations in conjunction with the construction of a cruise berthing facility.”

While some residents and government officials tout the economic benefit of accommodating more cruise ship travel to an already popular destination, some fear potentially steep environmental damage, Chamalian said.

The filmmaking team showed a trailer at the Showcase and will screen the full documentary, which is now in final edits, May 4 in King Auditorium in Bozorth Hall.

“It’s an incredible story,” Nicolae said. “It takes real commitment to develop an idea like this and turn it around so quickly.”

For more on this story go to: https://today.rowan.edu/home/news/2018/04/24/ccca-celebrates-6th-annual-student-awards-showcase