SPJ’s Region 2 includes Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia. First-place recipients advance to the national competition, where they will be judged alongside winners from SPJ’s 12 regions. National honorees will be recognized at the SPJ convention, scheduled for Oct. 1–4 in Columbus, Ohio.

Elon News Network earned seven first-place awards:

• Best All-Around Student Newspaper | The Pendulum | April 9, 2025; April 30, 2025; and Dec. 10, 2025 editions
• General News Reporting | Nia Bedard |
• In-depth Reporting | Anjolina Fantaroni |
• Feature Photography | Katrina Holtz | 
• Television Feature Reporting | Charlotte Pfabe | 
• Regional Political Reporting | Miles Hayford | and
• Retail/Small Business Journalism | Lilly Molina | and

In addition, the organization earned five finalist nods:

• Best Affiliated Website | Elon News Network | 
• Best All-Around Television Newscast | ENN Tonight | Ìę±đ»ćŸ±łÙŸ±ŽÇČÔ
• Best Use of Multimedia | Erin Martin |
• Personality Profile Writing | Avery Sloan |
• Sports Writing | Miles Hayford |

With an hour after watching “The Oldest Person in the World” open the , 51±ŹÁÏÍű students were talking with the film’s director, Sam Green, at the festival’s opening night party. It is a moment that captures the access and immersion of the students’ experience as Full Frame Fellows.

Each spring, elondocs students participate in the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival as Fellows, joining one of the nation’s leading documentary gatherings. Accompanied by Nicole Triche, professor of cinema and television arts, 11 Elon students spent four days last week attending film screenings, panels and social events, interacting with filmmakers and networking with industry professionals.

Throughout the festival, students attended screenings at the Carolina Theatre and Durham Convention Center, moving between venues to experience a wide range of films and engage in conversations with filmmakers and audiences. For many, the opportunity to interact directly with filmmakers – including conversations with Green – offered a deeper understanding of how documentaries are conceived, structured and brought to life.

“The Full Frame Fellows experience gives students a chance to see documentary as both an art form and a profession,” said Triche, who serves as faculty director of elondocs. “They are engaging with filmmakers, hearing how stories come together, which will help them with their own projects.”

Inside packed theaters, students experienced the collective energy of audiences engaging with documentary storytelling in real time.

“One of the most important takeaways was the fact that people are still excited and engaging with documentary as an art form,” said Trista Panagakos ’28, a journalism major from Staten Island, New York. “It brings me hope for my future when I see a theater full of people enjoying a documentary.”

For Sandy Orozco-Rosaldo ’28, a double major in cinema and television arts and strategic communications from Burlington, the experience also highlighted the power of cultural representation on screen.

“A personal highlight for me was seeing parts of my Mexican culture represented in a different light,” Orozco-Rosaldo said. “The film ‘Jaripeo’ by Efrain Mojica and Rebecca Zweig was something I had never seen in a cultural sense and in a cinematography sense, both beautifully executed.”

Orozco-Rosaldo also said the festival expanded her understanding of the documentary landscape.

“I learned how vast of a documentary community there is here in North Carolina and beyond. I feel confident that there are people out there waiting to see great works not so far from my home and campus.”
– Sandy Orozco-Rosaldo ’28

Beyond the screenings and formal events, the fellowship also fostered connections within the elondocs cohort, as students reflected on films and shared insights throughout the experience.

“I really enjoyed spending time with the elondocs cohort,” Panagakos said. “Many of us drove to and from Full Frame together and watched the same movies. This brought us closer and allowed us to break down films together and experience each other outside of our meetings.”

For Triche, that connection between academic preparation and professional exposure is central to the program’s mission.

“When students can see themselves in these spaces, engaging with filmmakers and contributing to the conversation, it helps make their goals feel tangible,” she said.

In addition to Orozco-Rosaldo and Panagakos, other Elon students in attendance included Evan Lukacs, Mary Finch, Julia Chan, Lily Gooding, Kaitlyn Dicataldo, Ashley Metzger, Alice Morrissey, Amalia Zucker and Sean Greenberg.

The 2026 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival featured 49 films from 31 countries, selected from more than 1,100 submissions.

McCollum, a cinema and television arts BFA major from Charlotte, spent last fall studying at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, also known as FAMU. The program is unique among Elon’s study abroad programs: eight hours of class a day for the first two months, with the rest of the semester dedicated entirely to filming and editing a short film.

“You’re really there to focus on making this one film, which is kind of awesome,” McCollum said.

After students pitch scripts at the start of the program, seven are selected, and crews form organically around those directors. McCollum landed the role of director of photography on “Night Shift,” a dark mystery short about a janitor who discovers a dead body in his office building and is met with indifference when he seeks help. The team immediately set about trying to find locations to film around Prague – which turned out not to be an easy task.

When the crew applied to 20 locations around the city and heard nothing back, they turned their own school building into a film set. The production designer spent an hour before and after every shoot day transforming the space, while McCollum measured each room in advance to plan every lighting setup.

The film was also shot on 16mm – real, physical film – which added an entirely different layer of pressure. No monitor, no autofocus, no fixing exposure problems in post-production.

“You don’t really know what your shot looked like until you saw it on the big screen,” McCollum said.

When the group left Prague, they pooled $50 each and handed McCollum the $200 to spend on festival submissions. He used Film Freeway to submit to festivals in Charlotte, Los Angeles, and New York – the hometowns of the four crew members. Then he waited.

The first response came from the Independent Shorts Awards, where “Night Shift” earned a Bronze Award for Best Production Design. A follow-up email brought additional recognition – an Honorable Mention for Best Mystery Short, a category McCollum hadn’t even entered. The film has also been nominated for Best Student Short at the Queen City Culture Film Festival in Charlotte, scheduled for Saturday, April 25, with several more decisions still pending.

With early success on the festival circuit, the experience has reshaped how McCollum views filmmaking beyond the classroom. He plans to submit his senior BFA film to festivals and now encourages other student filmmakers to take that same step.

“Once you apply to your first festival, you’ll get attention,” he said. “You just gotta get your foot in the door.”

A Virginia resident majoring in communication design, Wu grew up in the DaXing area near the capital city until age 12 and has closely followed efforts to clean up the LiangShui (Cold Water) River.

Judges for the Pulitzer Fellowship, a competitive international travel grant awarded to an Elon student journalist each year, noted that Wu’s proposal stood out for its background research and on-the-ground context.

A fluent Mandarin speaker with his own photography business, Wu noted that while air pollution in China receives much attention, less coverage has been given to water quality and to the impact of factory effluent, agricultural runoff, and untreated waste on the region’s rivers, lakes and groundwater. Wu believes much has changed since the conditions he observed in his childhood, when waterways were filled with algae blooms and litter.

“This is an example of when a community and its officials reach an agreement to improve a crucial resource to their well-being and actually work out a beneficial solution,” he said. “However, there are so many towns, especially rural ones, that lack the power, voice or physical ability to improve something as important as a shared waterway.”

51±ŹÁÏÍű is a long-standing member of the , a network of colleges and universities that support the center’s mission to promote journalism on critical global issues. The organization pairs students with mentors and advises student journalists through the reporting and publication phases. Students from the 39 participating campuses travel to Washington, D.C., to present their projects, and campus partners also benefit from professional journalist grantees who visit partner campuses.

Among his professors and collaborators at Elon News Network, Wu has earned a reputation for being open to a variety of assignments and for his technical dexterity, said Randy Piland, associate teaching professor in Communication Design.

“Ethan’s always willing to take on any photo assignment,” Piland said. “He has a sense for quality. He’s taken it to another level.”

Lorraine Ahearn, assistant professor of journalism, serves as Elon’s liaison to the Pulitzer Center.

51±ŹÁÏÍű’s growing connections within the drone education community came full circle on April 11, when the university hosted the U.S. Drone Soccer District IV Championship in South Gym for the first time.

The event brought together high school teams from North Carolina and Virginia for a fast-paced competition that blends strategy, engineering and flight skills — but for Randy Piland, the moment represented something bigger: the result of years spent building relationships through Elon Drone Day.

“It was not long after drone soccer launched in the U.S. that I became interested in the sport,” said the associate teaching professor of communication design who organizes Elon Drone Day. “I learned that Asheboro City Schools had a well-established team, so I reached out and invited them to Drone Day in 2023.”

That initial connection grew into a partnership that ultimately led to Elon serving as a host site for district-level competition, evolving from a demonstration at Elon Drone Day — where students introduced the sport to attendees — into a broader collaboration with educators and industry partners.

At a subsequent Elon Drone Day last fall, North Carolina State University contributed a drone soccer arena, while students from Asheboro City Schools returned to demonstrate the sport in action.

Those connections ultimately paved the way for Elon to host the District IV Championship after Anthony Woodyard, chief information officer for Asheboro City Schools, approached Piland about securing an on-campus venue. South Gym provided ample space for competition and spectators, along with convenient access for visiting teams. To see the drone soccer action, .

“When we launched Elon Drone Day, the goal was to create a space where people could learn about this rapidly evolving technology,” Piland said.

That vision continues to expand, with events like the district championship strengthening Elon’s role as a hub for drone education and innovation.

Piland teaches two courses at Elon that explore the growing role of unmanned aerial systems across industries.

Drones and Society: Balancing Innovation and Accountability, first offered as a COR Capstone last fall, examines the technology from multiple angles, including history, ethics and hands-on flight. This spring, Piland launched Drones 101: Takeoff to Career Paths, which introduces communications students to drone operations and their applications in fields ranging from media and environmental research to emergency response.

“The feedback we received on the district championship was very positive, and we hope we’ll be asked to host again next year,” Piland said.

Looking ahead, the Elon professor sees even more potential for growth — particularly in expanding access for local students.

“I’d like Elon, with some outside financial support, to organize after-school programs here in Alamance County where high school students can get involved in this fast-paced e-sport,” he said.

The six teams – 40 students in all – competing in the championship represented Asheboro City Schools, Wheatmore High School in Trinity, North Carolina, and an afterschool program sponsored by Virginia Tech.

The championship finals featured two Asheboro teams, with both advancing to the U.S. Drone Soccer 2026 National Championship, scheduled for May 18–19 at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.

What began as a joke – a parody social media page poking fun at a local police department – spiraled into a high-stakes legal battle and ultimately the subject of “Crime & Parody,” a new documentary co-produced by Elon graduate .

The film will screen at the 28th RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem on Saturday, April 18, at 3:30 p.m. and again on Friday, April 24, at 5 p.m. .

At its center, “Crime & Parody” follows amateur comedian Anthony Novak, whose satirical Facebook page led to a police raid, criminal charges and a broader fight over First Amendment rights in the United States. As the case unfolds – eventually reaching the U.S. Supreme Court – the film expands beyond satire to examine deeper questions around qualified immunity and accountability, weaving in the story of Omar Arrington-Bey, a suburban Cleveland man who died while in police custody, and the lasting impact of police violence.

As a co-producer, Rostick contributed throughout the filmmaking process, from reviewing transcripts and shaping story structure to providing feedback across multiple cuts. Their work with director Will Thwaites evolved over several years, with Rostick helping strengthen the film’s narrative by encouraging the inclusion of additional perspectives that deepen its emotional and societal impact.

“’Crime & Parody’ is an important thought piece wrapped up in a good time,” said Rostick, who was a cinema and television arts and strategic communications double major. “You’ll laugh, reflect, question authority and feel something along the way. At a time when free expression and free speech are being threatened at every turn, the film offers the story of an unlikely hero fighting back.”

The film’s balance of humor and impact is what drew Rostick deeper into the work. Initially attracted to the opportunity to collaborate on an independent project, they said the film ultimately became something more – a chance to move beyond entertainment and contribute to meaningful dialogue.

“This felt like the first opportunity for my work in documentary film to leave a greater impact,” they said.

Rostick, who was an Odyssey Program scholar at Elon, said their foundation in film was shaped during their time at Elon. Through Cinelon, they gained extensive hands-on production experience and developed the work ethic that carried into professional opportunities. This includes traveling to more than 30 shoots nationwide supporting “Children of the Underground,” a five-episode documentary series from FX.

The Elon graduate also credits Nicole Triche, professor of cinema and television arts, with helping define their path. Triche’s documentary course introduced Rostick to the craft and ultimately led them to pursue a career in nonfiction filmmaking – and to an early PBS project that first connected them with Thwaites.

“Crime & Parody” has already built momentum on the festival circuit, premiering at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Montana and screening at the Atlanta Documentary Film Festival, where Thwaites earned Best Director honors.

Now, at RiverRun, the documentary will continue to reach new audiences, inviting viewers to consider not just the absurdity of one man’s arrest, but the broader implications for free speech, justice and accountability in America.

A team of School of Communications students has earned national recognition in the 2026 Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) , receiving an honorable mention for its campaign implementation and overall deliverables.

The Bateman Competition is PRSSA’s premier national case study competition, challenging undergraduate student teams to design and execute a public relations campaign for a real-world client. This year’s competition featured 46 entries from students representing universities across the country, with 11 teams earning honorable mention distinction. A full list of honored institutions appears below.

Elon’s team developed and implemented a strategic communications campaign for ACCESS Newswire, a media monitoring and news distribution service. The research and planning for the campaign began in January. The campaign implementation, conducted from February to March, focused on tactics to promote the company’s new educational program and platform, which provides professors free access so students can gain hands-on experience with press release distribution, media pitching, sentiment analysis and media coverage tracking.

The Elon student team included Hannah Parker ’26 (account manager), Sydney Griffith ’29, Brooke Menzock ’26, Sandy Orozco-Rosaldo ’28, Taylor Radney ’28 and Grace Wizel ’28. Karen Lindsey, assistant professor of strategic communications, served as the team’s faculty adviser and applauded the students’ efforts.

“Our Elon Bateman team spent countless hours in the evenings and on weekends to research, plan and implement the campaign,” she said. “From writing a series of thought leadership articles for Substack to facilitating faculty focus groups on and off campus, they created a meaningful campaign that challenged them.

“I’m incredibly proud of how they balanced the demands of their regular coursework with dedication to this competition. The experience produced the kind of work for their professional portfolios that employers want to see.”

The competition’s three finalists will present their campaigns to the national PRSSA board and ACCESS Newswire representatives on May 7 to determine the winner.

Bateman Case Study Competition

Finalists:
Montclair State University
Texas State University AdvoCats
Texas State University StarCats

Honorable Mentions:
Brigham Young University – Navy Team
California State University, Long Beach
51±ŹÁÏÍű
High Point University
Kent State University Gold
Louisiana State University
Loyola University New Orleans
University of Florida CommuniGATORS
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
University of Oklahoma Gaylord College
University of Tennessee, Knoxville

In December, as Anderson presented the agency’s Gold Bear Award – a peer-driven recognition celebrating employees who best represent the company’s culture and values – he lauded Young’s willingness to take on “massive responsibilities,” commending her ability to “effortlessly power through high-pressure projects.”

“She’s the person everyone turns to for answers and support, uplifting every team she touches and quietly cleaning up problems that aren’t even hers to solve,” Anderson told audience members.

As he concluded and Young’s name flashed across the massive screen behind him, the room erupted in applause – a moment captured in a video Young shared on her LinkedIn page.

The award capped off a standout year for Young, who serves as an assistant producer at TBWA\Media Arts Lab, the global network of agencies responsible for one of the world’s most iconic brands, Apple. Her year included work on major Apple-related projects such as the Mac for Students campaign, the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Dua Lipa’s “Shot on iPhone” tour and Apple TV rebranding efforts.

Reflecting on that work, Young said the experience has been both challenging and rewarding.

“I am so incredibly grateful for these experiences and the amazing, incredibly talented teams behind them,” she said, noting how meaningful it was to be part of such high-profile, creatively ambitious work.

Young’s path to TBWA\Media Arts Lab began at Elon, where a DEI in Hollywood class helped shape her professional direction. Encouraged by former Elon faculty members J. McMerty and Rachel Ramist, she applied for and landed an internship with the Television Academy. That experience, along with her participation in the Elon in LA program, led her to move to Los Angeles after graduation. Once on the West Coast, she first worked as a personal assistant, then as a production coordinator at a social media marketing company.

As Young began thinking about her next step, a recruiter from TBWA\Media Arts Lab contacted her about a production coordinator role in the agency’s broadcast production department. During interviews, she learned that her internships – especially with the Television Academy and RadicalMedia – helped her stand out. She was offered the position and later moved into her current role, where she supports lead producers to ensure projects run smoothly from start to finish.

As part of her work, Young organizes security plans, tracks creative assets, coordinates meetings with production companies, and supports communication among producers in editorial, finishing and mix. Her goal, she said, is to make sure every project has what it needs to succeed.

Working at a global creative agency has reshaped how Young views storytelling. She said she was surprised by how much care goes into even the shortest pieces of content. Creative teams analyze work frame by frame, fixing even the smallest details before releasing it into the world. Seeing that process firsthand has made her more aware of the thought, precision and responsibility behind creative work.

When she learned she had received the Gold Bear Award, Young said she felt grateful more than anything else. “I consider myself lucky to work with the teams I have,” she said. “The whole production team is a bunch of rockstars, not to mention our creative department and account teams. To be recognized by them makes me feel like I am doing something right.”

As she reflects on her journey from Elon to one of the world’s most influential creative agencies, Young emphasizes the importance of attitude, effort and openness to opportunity. Her advice to current Elon students is simple: say yes often and show that you are willing to work. Some of the best projects, she said, come from teams who are fully committed to making something great – and who bring a positive attitude, even when things get stressful.

“What I’ve found in internships and entry-level roles is that folks who show that they are passionate and team-oriented seem to do well,” Young said. “When I first started at MAL, the people who stood out to me, who had clearly left their mark on the agency, were those who were team players, focused on supporting others and achieving the best final result.”

Elon News Network earned 11 awards during the National College Media Conference hosted by the Associated Collegiate Press in San Francisco, March 5-7.

The awards contest included hundreds of entries from college media outlets from across the country. Below is a list of the Elon winners.

• Finalist – Online Pacemaker | Staff |
• 2nd Place – Best of Show Broadcast | “ENN Tonight” |
• 2nd Place – Best of Show Newspaper | The Pendulum |
• 4th Place – Best of Show Digital Newsletter | Elon News Network Weekly Newsletter |
• 6th Place – Best of Show Website |
• 6th Place – Best of Show News Story | Lilly Molina and Charlotte Pfabe |
• 10th Place – Best of Show Sports Story | Benjamin Berfield |
• 8th Place – Best of Show Feature Story | Charlotte Pfabe |
• 6th Place – Best of Show Newspaper Design | Sarah T. Moore |
• 7th Place – Best of Show Broadcast News Story | Anjolina Fantaroni | “
• 10th Place – Best of Show Broadcast Sports Story | Monika Jurevicius | “

Elon students attending the National College Media Convention conference included Evan Cooper ’28, Trista Panagakos ’28, Megan Walsh ’28 and Nolan Williams ’28. They were accompanied by Kelly Furnas, senior lecturer in journalism and ENN adviser.

ENN is a student-run news organization covering 51±ŹÁÏÍű and the broader Alamance County community. It includes The Pendulum newspaper, “ENN Tonight” broadcast, elonnewsnetwork.com website, as well as social media accounts, podcasts and newsletters. regardless of their experience level, major or year in school.

The School of Communications community gathered March 5 in Snow Family Grand Atrium for the third annual Spotlight on Inclusive Excellence, an interactive event highlighting projects and initiatives advancing inclusive storytelling and media practice.

The program featured table conversations where attendees moved throughout the space to engage with students, faculty and staff about ongoing initiatives and projects.

Take a closer look at our Spotlight on Inclusive Excellence with our .

Assistant Dean Vanessa Bravo opened the event by emphasizing that inclusive excellence remains a core priority within the School of Communications and across 51±ŹÁÏÍű.

“Inclusive excellence is deeply important to us,” Bravo said. “These values have always mattered and will continue to matter.”

Throughout the program, attendees explored a range of subjects, including work by student organizations, projects from Live Oak Communications — the school’s student-run communications agency — student journalism and research efforts, faculty scholarship and coursework connected to the university’s Advancing Equity Requirement.

Other discussions focused on topics such as women in sports, student research featured in academic journals, and projects examining how communications and media can amplify diverse voices and perspectives.

Bravo said the event helped the school community better understand the breadth of inclusive excellence initiatives taking place across the School of Communications.

“This is a great opportunity to learn about the many diversity-, equity- and inclusion-related efforts happening throughout the School of Communications,” she said. “From student organizations and faculty research to journalism projects and alumni work, these efforts demonstrate how our community is engaging these issues in meaningful ways.”

“The discussions highlighted how quickly the communications landscape is evolving — and why questions of equity and representation remain central to that change,” said Lorraine Ahearn, assistant professor of journalism and chair of the Inclusive Excellence Committee. “Our students, faculty and alumni are actively examining how media systems shape who is represented and whose voices are heard.”

Bravo thanked the faculty members who organized the event through the school’s Inclusive Excellence Committee, including Ahearn, Young Do Kim, Sydney Nicolla, and Lee Bush, as well as the students, faculty and staff who hosted conversations during the program.