News

La Verne rides glory of WAVE awards success

Julian Burrell
Associate Editor

Anthony Juarez
Staff Writer

The University of La Verne’s LVTV-3 Community Television public access station was recognized for its work with two first place awards and five finalists recognized at this year’s Western Area Video Excellence Awards earlier this month in San Jose.

The awards go to the best public access television productions in the western United States.

“This says we are not amateur filmmakers anymore, but we are becoming professional filmmakers now,” said Marie Tabarez, a junior broadcast major and one of the winners for the public service announcement for sunscreen called “Sizzlin’.”

“I could not even imagine, being in an intermediate class, that I would qualify at all,” Tabarez said.

Tabarez’s crewmates included sophomore TV broadcast majors Kaitlin Hollingsworth and Daniel Bateman.

“Film awards give us a sense of recognition. When you get recognized, it makes you want to work harder,” Hollingsworth said.

Finalists were helped in many aspects of their craft by Professors of Communications Don Pollock and Mike Laponis and Radio-TV Operations Manager Shane Rodrigues.

“I didn’t even know that Don had entered us (in the competition) until he e-mailed us telling us we were finalists,” Hollingsworth said.

Sophomores McKinley Pollock and Anthony Troli also won a WAVE award for entertainment/variety program for “Party Foul,” a humorous story about two friends’ misadventures as they try to have a fun night out.

“I’m proud of it because it’s a cool achievement more than anything else,” Pollock said. “It’s something good to put on a resumé.”

Despite the great accomplishment of receiving a WAVE award, in the end most of the students remain more interested in the art of filmmaking.

“It’s nice that we won, but I wouldn’t say it makes (the film) more of an accomplishment,” Hollingsworth said. “I’m still learning a lot.”

“I feel like your film should be a testament to your creativity,” Pollock said. “You should be trying to say something with it. I’d still be proud even if we hadn’t won the award.”

Others whose projects earned finalist spots for their videos include communications students Laura Acevedo, Kai Groschupf and Daniella Villegas, and LVTV Public Access Coordinator Christopher Hruby.

Julian Burrell can be reached at julian.burrell@laverne.edu.

Anthony Juarez can be reached at anthony.juarez@laverne.edu.

Other Stories Bio
Other Stories Bio
Previous article
Optional SAT a good first step
Next article
Scaring costumes out of schools

Latest Stories

Related articles

News

Campus Times, La Verne Magazine win national awards

The Campus Times and La Verne Magazine have received top honors from both the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists for 2024-25, and 2025, respectively, plus numerous individual awards in the associations’ annual contests.
News

Radio students recognized in international contest

The Broadcast Education Association awarded senior journalism major Taylor Fukunaga and 2025 communications alumnus Zachary Grech awards for their work in audio, the organization announced last month. 
News

Journalism publications dominate in regional and national contests

The Campus Times and La Verne Magazine have each won the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Gold Medal award, the association’s top honor for overall journalism excellence – for college Newspaper/Online Hybrid, and college Magazine/Online Hybrid, respectively, for the 2024-25 academic year, the New York-based association announced late last month.
News

Cummings takes journalistic approach to memoir

Valerie Cummings, associate professor of broadcast journalism, shared her journey of writing a memoir about the challenging and transformative year leading to the adoption of her daughter, now 24, during the faculty lecture series Tuesday in the Quay Davis Executive Board Room.