Several Digital Media & Journalism students bring home top awards

The work of several students in Liberty University’s Department of Digital Media & Journalism has been recognized in recent competitions by industry professionals, helping them boost their résumés and represent the university well among their peers.

A trio of Liberty students traveled to the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Association International Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 20-23, and won first place in the event’s Intercollegiate National Religious Broadcasters (iNRB) 12-Hour Audio Challenge. Teams are given a prompt at 9 a.m. and tasked with creating a 2- to 3-minute audio drama by 9 p.m. the day. The team of senior Riley Cohen, senior Michael Poliero, and junior Morgan Sowell was assigned to create a story with the theme of unity, and they crafted a superhero story titled “The Storm.” The drama featured a woman with the power to calm storms who loses her power temporarily while taking the advice of a villain and trying to rely only on her own strength.

“We had to appeal to a non-Christian audience, so we wanted to think of a cool story with a subliminal message (that reflects) Christ,” Cohen said, noting that he did a lot of the sound design while Poliero and Sowell did most of the writing and acting. “It’s a message about how Christ gives us the power to be set free from sin and to live perfectly, but Satan tells us we can do everything on our own. When we listen to Satan, we always fail miserably.”

Since the competition launched in 2016, Liberty has taken first place four times (2016, 2020, 2021, and 2024) and third place in 2018.

Digital media professor Kornel Gerstner attended the NRB conference and said these competitions give students the opportunity to meet with people who may hire them or give them internships in the future.

“They get to hear from professionals about what the expectations are, all while they are still in school and can grow in their skills. These projects are judged by professionals, so the students aren’t just hearing (feedback) from me; now they’re hearing from people who are in the field and doing this type of work daily. They can see what others are doing and see how they need to be doing more or sharpening different skills before they graduate.”

Cohen said he enjoyed visiting Nashville because he has completed an internship there and has career aspirations in the music production industry.

“I had never been to the conference before, and I met a lot of awesome people there,” he said. “I met a lot of good people and made some connections that I think can help me in the future.”

Junior Riley Clingman, sports director and a play-by-play announcer for the on-campus radio station, 90.9 The Light, won the Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters’ l“Best Sports Play-by-Play” competition last month. He beat out college broadcasters from Virginia and West Virginia. Clingman, who is studying in the sports journalism program, had never done radio or had much interest in hockey when he started in Fall 2022, but said he has fallen in love with calling Liberty’s Division I men’s hockey games for The Light. Clingman submitted a 5-minute reel of his calls from a game against Ohio University — a 5-2 Liberty victory — for the competition.

“There’s this adrenaline that comes over me when Liberty gets the first goal of the game or a game-winner or some other big play, and it’s amazing every time it happens,” he said.

A class assignment turned into an Award of Excellence from the Broadcast Education Association in the Specialty Program & Podcasts category for senior Megan Dunfee, who is studying church media production. For her final project in an audio production class, Dunfee created “New Prescription,” a podcast episode that featured perspectives of her guest — her father, Lee — and advice to young adults.

“I’ve always wanted to create a podcast episode, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity,” Dunfee said. “The idea for this podcast came from the perspective of ‘What would I, as a young adult in this stage of life, want to listen to?’ I know there are thousands of others in the same boat as me, getting ready to graduate or already graduated and starting their life.”

“The art of audio production is something that is often overlooked and underappreciated,” she added. “I think the experience of creating a podcast is invaluable and something that I’ll carry with me to my career.”

Gerstner said he is proud of the way the department’s students are representing Liberty University.

“It’s an opportunity for Liberty to shine and for people to see that our students are strong,” he said. “Our students show up well, and they show that they know what they are talking about.”