Every aspiring journalist or filmmaker remembers the first time they felt part of something bigger. This past spring, for New Paltz students involved in the Center for Student Media and the Department of Digital Media and Journalism, that moment happened in Las Vegas.  

Each year, SUNY New Paltz’s Department of Digital Media & Journalism and Center for Student Media help students to network with industry professionals and gain insight into the field, and one of the ways this is done is via a national conference and trade show. SUNY New Paltz has a long-standing relationship with the Broadcast Education Association (BEA), a national academic-based media organization that connects students with educators, scholars and media industry professionals. 

Since 2014, SUNY New Paltz not only partnered with, but created the first ever on-campus BEA chapter to give students a wider platform for their work, while also introducing them to industry movers and shakers. Over the past ten-plus years, SUNY New Paltz students have competed against hundreds of other colleges and universities of varying size and rank, receiving many major awards and constant recognition for their media-related work. A total of seven student representatives from Digital Media & Journalism and the Center for Student Media, along with their advisors, headed to Las Vegas in April for the annual BEA and National Associations of Broadcasters (NAB) Conference, Expo, and Festival of Media Arts. 

“It’s always a pleasure seeing our students demonstrating this degree of professionalism,” said Digital Media & Journalism Associate Professor and Chair Gregory Bray ’00 (Communication and Media). “They were shoulder-to-shoulder with people who are driving conversations in our media landscape.” 

As part of the five-day convention, several New Paltz student filmmakers were recognized for their thought-provoking short films that had previously been selected as winners by a panel of film industry leaders. In addition to the Festival of the Media Arts and awards ceremonies, conference attendees attended educational workshops, keynote speakers, demonstrations and sessions facilitated by scholars, industry professionals, college faculty and media advisors, and even fellow classmates.

Documentaries “Escape the Vape” and “Saving Sinterklaas,” as well as the narrative short film “Liberty,” received awards of excellence in competitions that saw a record number of submissions from more than 100 schools across the country. 

“It was an honor to represent SUNY New Paltz and to be recognized for a film I poured so much of myself into,” said Fiona Seabrook ’25 (Digital Media Production), who directed and produced "Saving Sinterklaas,” based on a long-running holiday festival in her native Rhinebeck, New York. “I am so grateful to have had this opportunity and will carry this with me.” 

[The New Paltz College of Liberal Arts & Sciences newsletter has an overview of all the film winners from this year’s BEA and NAB festival.] 

Meanwhile, editors for the student-run newspaper The New Paltz Oracle Jeremy Sodergren ’25 (Journalism) and Emily Clayton ’25 (Political Science) served as panelists on a discussion titled “Reporting on Campuses in Crisis: Student Journalism During Rising Tensions,” where they spoke alongside academic experts, including Bray, on current issues affecting journalism in higher education institutions.  

Clayton and Sodergren were recruited to be part of the panel because of their expertise and first-hand experience reporting during a campus crisis. Center for Student Media Director and New Paltz Oracle Advisor, Valerie Turco ’05 (Communication) ’10g (Humanistic-Multicultural Education) served as the panel moderator. The New Paltz Oracle covers the SUNY New Paltz campus and surrounding community  including topics like local construction projects and new programs on campus. 

“Speaking at a national conference was an incredible opportunity for us to share our unique role as student journalists during a campus crisis," said Clayton. "It is important for our experiences to be shared and for us to learn from one another, especially on larger national and international scales.”

The panel, a BEA Education session, was attended by faculty, staff, students and industry professionals. The structure of this panel was a testament to the collaboration between the academic program and extracurricular media opportunities on campus, an intentional and ongoing partnership that Bray and Turco have fostered over the years.

Additionally, Eden ‘Lena’ Burch ’26 (Digital Media Production) and Alyssa Bush ’25 (Digital Media Production) were awarded the competitive RAB (formerly known as Radio Association of Broadcasters) scholarship, a financial award giving students direct access to industry leaders at the BEA and NAB Conference, Expo and Festival.  

Through this award, they met big-time film and media professionals, walked the red carpet at convention events and met one of AT&T’s robotic dogs. Bush also served as a media production intern, where she created social media content documenting her experiences. 

“I left the conference and festival with a stronger understanding of media production,” said Bush, who also met Alice Brooks, cinematographer for hit films “Tick, Tick... Boom!” and “Wicked” through this scholarship. “Collaborating with fellow multimedia journalists and being a part of different workshops was incredibly rewarding.”  

More on how the Department of Digital Media & Journalism & Center for Student Media prepares students for the real world of media 

Sending students to the BEA and NAB show is just one of the myriad ways that New Paltz’s Department of Digital Media & Journalism and the Center for Student Media provide avenues for out-of-classroom experience, which is increasingly important in an ever-competitive job market.  

From taking on various roles at the Woodstock Film Festival, to site visits at places like Sirius XM and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, students are exposed to the industry through the connections that current faculty, staff and administrators have with media professionals and alumni working in the field. Students can gain a plethora of professional grade media opportunities via the Center for Student Media, whether contributing to one of the print publications, creating content for Hawk Studios, or being involved with the radio station.  

Then, there’s the exceptional journalism disseminating from University students, through both articles in the Oracle and internships for local and national news organizations, including the University-affiliated Legislative Gazette,  where students report on happenings in the state capitol. 

“No matter what projects they’re working on, it’s always a pleasure seeing our students demonstrating such a degree of professionalism,” said Turco. 

Recent alumni have taken the hands-on experiences they acquired as students to work across the entertainment industry and media landscape, including for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and Netflix hit “The Four Seasons.”  

“Our students and alumni are in elite professional company,” said Bray. “I am proud of their accomplishments.” 

Click here to learn more about the Department of Digital Media & Journalism. 

For more information on the Center for Student Media, click here.