Newhouse students take top prizes in BEA student awards
The Newhouse School had a strong showing at the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) 2021 On-Location Creative Competition. Newhouse students and projects brought home two Best of Show honors and four Awards of Excellence, including a sweep of the Student Photojournalism category for “Deconstructing the Divide” photo stories.
Student Interactive Multimedia Competition
Best of Show
“Deconstructing the Divide”
“Deconstructing the Divide” Staff
Award of Excellence
“Visualizing 81”
Sonny Cirasuolo, Lawry Boyer, Kevin Camelo, Molly Gibbs and Amanda Paule
Student Photojournalism Competition
Best of Show
“For the Win”
TJ Shaw and Laura Oliverio
Award of Excellence
“Stepping Up for Justice”
Renée Deemer and Laura Oliverio
Award of Excellence
“Our Poisoned Kids”
Jessica Ruiz and Laura Oliverio
Student Documentary Competition
Award of Excellence
“Syracuse Senior Confronts Inherited Trauma Through Painting”
Patrick Linehan (The NewsHouse)
View the 2021 Creative Competition Winners>>
Newhouse students, projects win big at Syracuse Press Club Awards
Newhouse students were recognized at the 2021 Syracuse Press Club Awards with 11 first place awards while Newhouse School media outlets The Stand and WAER earned honors in several professional categories and broadcast and digital journalism senior Ricky Sayers was recognized with the Press Club’s A. Brohmann Roth Newcomer Award.
Congratulations, winners!
Radio/Podcast Journalism
Investigative Story
1st Place: NCC News, Alex Peebles
“Peebles for the People”
News Feature
3rd Place: WAER, James Corrigan
“WAER Election Blueprint: Race Relations”
Sports Story
1st Place: WAER, Jenna Fink
“Syracuse University’s Fight for Social Justice”
2nd Place: WAER, Brandon Ross
“The Return of Mack Brown”
3rd Place: WAER, Gil Gross
“Syracuse Stuck with Hyman Through High School Misfortune”
Sports Show
1st Place: WAER, Karl Moeglein, Gil Gross, Corey Spector and Cooper Boardman
“Syracuse v. North Carolina Countdown to Kickoff”
2nd Place: WAER, Owen Valentine and Max Chadwick
“Sportsnight: Syracuse Basketball Preview Show Pandemic and Expectations”
3rd Place: WAER, Owen Valentine and Ben Shulman
“Ostrom Avenue Podcast: Basketball Conference Competition Begins”
Print Journalism
Carl Single Award for Spot News Photography
3rd Place: Syracuse.com, Ricky Sayer
“High School Students Lead Thousands on Youth Black Lives Matter March”
Column
1st Place: The Stand, Jeff Kramer
“Census Concerns”
Portrait
2nd Place: The Stand, Mike Greenlar
“Light Display”
Photo Essay
3rd Place: The Stand, Mike Greenlar and Herm Card
“CNY Bicycle Giveaway”
Online Journalism
Breaking News
3rd Place: The Stand, Jeff Kramer
“LiteracyCNY Set to Close this Week”
Student Journalism
Radio/Podcast News Story
2nd Place: WAER, James Corrigan
“Free Cancer Screenings Fight Growing Problem during COVID Crisis of Ignoring Other Health Issues”
Print News Story
1st Place: The Daily Orange, Emma Folts and Michael Sessa
“#NotAgainSU protesters block intersection outside Crouse-Hinds Hall”
Television News Story
1st Place: Citrus TV, Ricky Sayer, Erin Lyons, Rob Flaks and Kathryn Goralski
“Special Report: Faculty Under Pressure”
3rd Place: Citrus TV, Ricky Sayer
“The Quietest of Game Days”
Print Sports Story
1st Place: The Daily Orange, Tim Nolan
“Return to Form: After beating cancer, Tiana Mangakahia’s return to lineup began with pickup”
2nd Place: The Daily Orange, Andrew Crane
“‘CEO of the program’: The best stories of John Desko’s 45-year tenure”
3rd Place: The Daily Orange, Mitchell Bannon
“Coaching double standard plagues women’s college ice hockey”
Television Sports Story
1st Place: The NewsHouse, Julia Skeval, Adam Klepp, Justin Glowacki and Jakob Konwiser
“The Creator’s Game”
3rd Place: Citrus TV, Cameron Macaulay
“Brendan Curry Shares His Homewood Connection”
Radio/Podcast Feature Story
2nd Place: WAER, James Corrigan
“OCC Students Celebrate Graduation In Drive-Thru Commencement”
Print Feature Story
1st Place: The Daily Orange, Marnie Muñoz
“Between 2 worlds: How Syracuse’s racist housing policies created a racial divide”
Television Feature Story
1st Place: Citrus TV, Ricky Sayer
“Joe Biden’s Time at Syracuse University Law School”
2nd Place: NCC News, Nicole Weaving
“A Wedding Full of Surprises”
3rd Place: NCC News, Morgan Trau
“Mental Toll of Protesting”
Multimedia Story
1st Place: The Highstakes Staff (The NewsHouse)
“High Stakes: The Risks and Rewards of Legalizing Marijuana”
2nd Place: The Socially Driven Staff
“Socially Driven”
3rd Place: The 61% Project Staff
“61% Project”
Newhouse students, WAER win big at NYS Broadcasters Association awards
The New York State Broadcasters Association is announced the award winners for their 2021 Excellence in Broadcasting Awards, showering honors on WAER and CitrusTV. The awards will be presented at the Regional Awards Luncheons this month.
Medium Market Radio
Outstanding Feature
WAER: “How to warn kids about dangers of vaping? Cornell program shows through a microscope.”
Outstanding Sports Coverage
WAER: “Overdue: Retire a woman’s jersey.”
College Radio
Outstanding Feature:
WAER: “The pride of Syracuse”
College Television
Outstanding Public Affairs Program or Series
CitrusTV: “Talking Points, October 5, 2020”
Outstanding Spot News Story
CitrusTV: “Special Report: #NotAgainSU and Syracuse University Fail to Reach Agreement, Occupation to Continue”
Outstanding Hard News Story
CitrusTV: “The Mental Toll of Protesting”
Outstanding Feature News Story
OUTSTANDING FEATURE NEWS STORY
CitrusTV: “SU Student Looks Back and Acts Forward with Music”
Outstanding Live On-Screen Reporting
CitrusTV – Ricky Sayer/#NotAgainSU Protests Winter Live Coverage
Outstanding Specialty Programming
OUTSTANDING SPECIALTY PROGRAMMING
CitrusTV: “Special Report: Faculty Under Pressure”
Outstanding Evening Newscast
CitrusTV: “News Live at 6: February 25, 2020”
Outstanding Morning Newscast
CitrusTV: “Juice and Java: February 22, 2020”
Outstanding Social Media Personality
CitrusTV: Ricky Sayer Twitter Profile
Outstanding Breaking News Coverage
CitrusTV: “Citrus TV #NotAgainSU Protest Tweets”
Congratulations, all!
Newhouse’s student-run digital media outlet features hands-on experience and award-winning work
The NewsHouse won 75 awards for student journalism in the last academic year. But students say it’s the opportunities, not the accolades, that make them want to work there.
When senior magazine major Amanda Paule went to a meeting for The NewsHouse’s Borderlines project she didn’t know what to expect. As a first-year student with no high school newspaper or journalism classes, she didn’t think that her pitch on Quebec nationalism would get accepted, let alone that she would be working with a graduate student on the story.
Paule is one of several Newhouse students who have won awards for work with The NewsHouse. She says she wishes she knew in high school that opportunities like this existed.
“It is a program that has changed my whole career trajectory. It’s exactly what I was looking for in terms of what I wanted to [do] in college,” Paule says.
The NewsHouse is student-run digital media outlet housed at the Newhouse School. Students produce, edit and publish content for the outlet with guidance from Newhouse professors. Stories and projects hosted at thenewshouse.com have won numerous awards for everything from home page website design to TV sports coverage. While The NewsHouse primarily covers Syracuse University, annual projects also go deeper into selected topics.
Borderlines, which explored the tensions around the U.S.-Canada border, was one of those projects. Thirty-six of the over 50 students who worked on the project traveled to the Canadian border in 2018 and returned with a breadth of stories told from both American and Canadian perspectives.
The 2019 project, High Stakes, covered the possible effects of marijuana legalization in New York state. Last year’s project, Deconstructing the Divide, explored inequality in the city of Syracuse and the activism addressing it.
Magazine, news, and digital (MND) journalism professor of practice Jon Glass is the executive producer of The NewsHouse. He says that while he chooses the project topic, it’s the students who take the initiative to pursue stories.
“That’s how I’ve always tried to structure The NewsHouse: provide the opportunities and see who can rise to the occasion,” Glass says.
For Paule, it is those opportunities that makes The NewsHouse so unique.
“They said, ‘Pitch anything that you want to pitch.’ That’s an opportunity you don’t always get, especially as starting journalists, because usually it’s, ‘You have to report on this project because that’s what we have for the day,'” Paule says. “With The Newshouse, all the opportunities are yours. Just pick.”
Paule has worked on every major NewsHouse project since she joined the organization during her first year at Newhouse. She says the ability to do long-form investigative work, like her AEJMC Award-winning article on Syracuse’s 15th ward, work in multiple mediums and work in teams has been incredibly valuable. However, it is the support from professors like Glass that keeps Paule coming back.
“I improved my journalism [by] leaps and bounds just [from] having all of that support,” Paule says. “It helped to crystallize that I’d be interested in pursuing a career working on these longer investigative projects.”
For those not interested in the larger projects, The NewsHouse offers other opportunities, including expanding on class work; photography senior Cole Strong was able to turn a class assignment into an award-winning story for The NewsHouse.
After Strong completed a documentary for his Video and Photography class, associate professor Seth Gitner urged Strong to pitch it to The NewsHouse. Glass ended up publishing Strong’s documentary and submitting it to the Broadcast Educators Association Festival of Media Arts and the White House News Photographers Association Eyes of History student contest, and the work won won awards in both cases.
Strong is thankful to The NewsHouse and Glass for submitting his documentary because it gave him the confidence and credibility to pursue video work.
“It just made me go, ‘Okay, I can do this,'” Strong says. “I’ve actually talked with a couple of people in some companies that I really like and some of the people have been like, ‘This video you made won these awards? Wow, that’s really cool.'”
Glass says whether the work comes from classes or projects, the quality reflects the way the Newhouse school teaches students.
“There are hundreds or thousands of stories written every year in classes and not all of them will necessarily get published, but it’s great that we were able to identify them, and students show interest and are motivated to work on them even more,” Glass says. “There seems like an endless number of opportunities, and the students who not only take advantage of them but work hard, get rewarded with recognition.”
However, Paule and Strong didn’t work with the NewsHouse for the chance for recognition and awards. They did it because they valued the learning and storytelling opportunities.
“The NewsHouse was a place that took us in as journalists with little or no journalism experience, allowed us to pitch stories, met us where we were and then taught us how to get to where we wanted to go,” Paule says.
Elizabeth Joan Kauma is a junior in the magazine, news and digital journalism program at the Newhouse School.
Creative advertising students win big at One Show Young Ones competition
Newhouse creative advertising students took home seven awards from the 2021 One Show Young Ones competition, a school record. The wins included the school’s first One Show Pencil and ADC Cube Awards.
One Show Young Ones comprises two international competitions: One Show Young Ones Brief, which asks students to create work based on briefs from clients with specific advertising problems to solve, and One Show Young Ones ADC, which includes multiple competition categories and celebrates outstanding concept and craft. Newhouse students won the second-most awards in the ADC competition and the third-most in the Brief competition out of all U.S. schools. Entrants came from art and portfolio schools, colleges and universities from 23 countries.
“We’re so proud of the talented students who have reached another milestone on their journey to be creative professionals,” says James Tsao, advertising department chair. “Their work looks so effortless, but there are the countless hours of hard work, creativity and determination to make it happen.”
“The One Show Young Ones Brief and ADC competitions are some of the hardest competitions to win in because all of the top creative advertising schools enter them in droves worldwide,” says professor of practice Mel White.
“Creative awards are one of the ways the advertising industry keeps score,” says professor of practice Kevin O’Neill. “Proving you can win them before you’ve even left college helps propel our kids to good jobs in the country’s best creative departments.”
Rachel Hayashi ’21, art director, and Jessica Mastorides ’21, copywriter, won one of two Silver Pencils given worldwide in the Burger King Brief competition. The team won for their integrated campaign “Have It The Real Way,” shown in this case study video. The brief asked creatives to “develop an idea that communicates that 100% of Burger King’s menu is now 100% real (free of preservatives, colors and flavors from artificial sources) in a way that lands [its] most important belief: real food tastes better.”
“We came to this insight that the fast food you see in ads and on TV looks so perfect and amazing, but the food you get when you go does not look that appetizing,” Mastorides says. “We thought if Burger King wants to promote the fact that the ingredients for their entire menu are 100% real, they should show off their 100% real food in their ads without any of the styling or the fake things that they use to make the burgers look so unrealistically perfect.”
Hayashi says the hard work and determination the team put into “Have It The Real Way” helped them win a Silver Pencil.
“Our mindset from the get-go was that we really wanted to win,” Hayashi says. “I think that subconsciously pushed our ideas a lot. We struggled throughout the campaign, it was a lot of blood, sweat and tears. But it was worth it because we did take home a Pencil, and the first one for Newhouse.”
Sarah Sek ’21, art director, and Jessica Miranda ’21, copywriter, were the only winners worldwide in the ADC competition’s Interactive AR/VR category. The creative team won a Silver Cube for their LEGO campaign “Infinicoaster,” shown in this case study video. Their idea merges digital and physical play via virtual reality and a LEGO rollercoaster set.
“The problem we had to solve was making LEGO prevalent in a world where kids don’t play with toys as often as they used to and there are so many other distractions,” Sek says. “We thought about what LEGO could do to stay relevant. We were thinking about a fun way to combine the physical play of LEGO with the current digital realm. We wanted to make physical play relevant by making it exciting and fun for kids.”
Brian Chau ’22, art director, and Alye Chaisson ’21, copywriter, won a merit award in the Brief competition’s Out of Home category for their Spotify campaign “Drive into Your Daily Drive,” shown in this case study video. The brief asked creatives to promote Spotify’s new “Your Daily Drive” playlist, which had been developed to replace listening to the radio during users’ daily commutes. However, it launched right before the pandemic, when commuting steeply declined, so Spotify needed to promote the product in a different way.
“We researched where people were driving now that they’re not driving to work,” Chaisson says. “We were thinking about listening in the car while not commuting. That’s where we got the idea of road trips because a lot of people were going on road trips last year.”
During the creative process, Chaisson and Chau went back to the drawing board several times and came back with better ideas, helping them to create their final strong concept. Chau says his time at Newhouse prepared him for entering the advertising world.
“Being good at crunch time is a really good skill because sometimes you don’t have a lot of time to do everything you need to,” Chau says. “Being able to sit down and immediately start contemplating the moment you get a brief helps. That’s a good skill Newhouse teaches the creative students, alongside being good at concepting and making cohesive campaigns.”
In the Brief competition, Sam Luo ’21, art director, and Grace Curran ’21, copywriter, received a shortlist award in the Integrated category for their WhatsApp campaign “On Hold,” shown in this case study video. The brief asked creatives to create an awareness campaign empowering young adults to solve mental health challenges through WhatsApp. Luo and Curran found that Gen Z is the generation most likely to feel anxious, and the incessant buzzing of a phone can contribute to that anxiety. Their idea was “On Hold,” a “do not disturb” feature for WhatsApp that can detect anxiety in the user using facial and voice recognition and pause all notifications when they take a social media break.
“Our goal was to recognize and solve a problem among those who suffer from mental health issues and create a plausible solution,” Luo says. “We recognized how social media can be triggering to people when experiencing symptoms of depression or anxiety.”
Luo says working with Curran was amazing, noting her ability to write scripts that matched his big ideas.
“We work really well together and she understands my ways of approaching things,” he says. “We complement each other in a great way. I’m a visual person and jump around all the time. Grace is a very logical person, hence why she is such a brilliant copywriter, and she complemented my craziness.”
In addition to the Silver Cube, Newhouse students won three merit awards in the ADC competition. Luo won for his “McDelivery” print ad campaign in the Advertising/Press category. Cerinn Park ’20, art director, and Marta Lala ’20, copywriter, won one of six awards in the Design for Good/Product Design category for their P&G campaign “uTINTsil,” shown in this case study video. Kelsi Ryan ’20, art director, and Chloe Greenwald ’20, copywriter, won one of four awards in the Advertising/Innovation category for their Apple and GLAAD campaign “Deadnaming,” shown in this case study video.
“I’m very proud of our creative advertising student winners,” White says. “Winning these awards means that the ad industry has communicated that this student work is stellar.”
White makes the Young Ones briefs an integral part of the Portfolio III course, where the students work on these briefs in art director/copywriter creative teams. The Briefs competition winning campaigns were created in this course. The ADC competition winning entries were also created in White’s Portfolio III course, as well as in the Portfolio II course taught by O’Neill.
“These Young Ones briefs are difficult to solve and reflect the types of briefs in the industry,” White says. “When the students create original innovative solutions for such hard briefs, they are ready for the industry.”
Samantha Savery G’21 is a graduate of the Goldring Arts Journalism and Communications program at the Newhouse School.
Student wins prestigious award for local community reporting
James Corrigan, a graduate student in the Newhouse School’s broadcast and digital journalism (BDJ) program, has won a 2021 national Edward R. Murrow Award. One of the most prestigious honors recognizing excellence in broadcast journalism, the Murrow Awards are presented by the Radio Television Digital News Association.
Corrigan won in the Excellence in Audio Hard News category for “Race Relations in the Country and Community on Minds Voters say in Your Election Blueprint,” which ran on WAER.
This is the second national Murrow Award win for Corrigan.
“Overwhelmed isn’t even the word,” he tweeted after learning of the honor. He thanked the BDJ department and faculty—Keren Henderson, Simon Perez and Randy Wenner in particular—for their support and guidance, and noted, “Coming to Newhouse was the best decision I ever made.” He also thanked WAER news director Chris Bolt.
Corrigan’s story delved into the fragile state of race relations in the local community and attitudes of BIPOC residents ahead of the 2020 election. “This was the most meaningful story I’ve worked on by a far,” he tweeted.
Newhouse students outshine competitors, winning most awards at AEJMC Best of Design contest
Newhouse students in advertising, graphic design and photography took home more awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Best of Design contest than any other competitor in three of the four divisions. Of the 16 awards won across multiple categories, five were Judge’s Choice awards and seven were Best in Category. Winners came from student work done in classes, including Mel White and Kevin O’Neill‘s advertising portfolio classes.
Congratulations, winners!
Visual Identity & Branding
Best in Category
Illustration
Marina Fernandez de la Cuesta
“How college sports undermine athletes” (The 61% Project)
Stationery
Shannon Kirkpatrick
“Sigmund Freud”
Judge’s Choice
Ramirez & Owen
Laura Angle
“Olympus Playing Cards”
O’Donnell
Samantha Currier
“COVID in the Community” (The NewsHouse)
Top Work
First Place
Laura Angle
“Olympus Playing Cards”
Editorial, Interactive & Motion Design
Judge’s Choice
Bult
Kevin Camelo, Deconstructing the Divide staff
“Deconstructing the Divide” (Deconstructing the Divide, The NewsHouse)
Advertising Design
Best in Category
Experiential Advertising Design
Experiential CocaCola CashCan (video) (Advertising Portfolio III ADV 431)
Maia Baptista, art director
Joe Cutuli, copywriter
Print
McDonald’s McDelivery Print (Advertising Portfolio II ADV 421)
Sam Luo, art director
Interactive & Social Media
Apple PAL Protect Asian Lives (video) (Advertising Portfolio III ADV 431)
Rachel Hayashi, art director
Jessica Mastorides, copywriter
Judge’s Choice
Crews
Girls Who Code a Step Behind (Advertising Portfolio III ADV 431)
Sam Luo, art director
Olivia Gormley, copywriter
Top Work
Second Place
Girls Who Code a Step Behind
Sam Luo, art director
Olivia Gormley, copywriter
Third Place
Integrated Burger King Have it the Real Way (video) (Advertising Portfolio III ADV 431)
Rachel Hayashi, art director
Jessica Mastorides, copywriter
Photography
Best in Category
Journalism Portrait
Todd F. Michalek
“Bob Weir and Wolf Bros.” (The NewsHouse)
Photography Essay
Renée Deemer & Laura Oliverio
“Stepping Up For Justice” (Deconstructing the Divide, The NewsHouse)
Judge’s Choice
Mohatt
Gavin Liddell
“The Last Ski Season” (The NewsHouse)
Top Work
Third Place
Gavin Liddell
“The Last Ski Season” (The NewsHouse)
Newhouse students win big in AEJMC Student Magazine Contest
Newhouse students took 10 awards, including six top prizes, in the recently announced AEJMC Student Magazine Contest. This showing made Syracuse University the biggest winner overall in this year’s contest, doubling the five wins taken by the closest competitor.
Winners and honorees came from a variety of Newhouse sources including The 61% Project, Deconstructing the Divide, The NewsHouse, Socially Driven, the military program’s SALT magazine and a team from Adam Peruta’s online master’s class.
Congratulations, winners!
Magazine Media
Single Issue of an Ongoing Magazine – Design
Runner Up: SALT 2021
The SALT Magazine Staff
Advisers: Nancy Austin, RC Concepcion, Renée Stevens, Bruce Strong, Claudia Strong, Amy Toensing
Magazine Launch
Winner
Temple of Kore
C Arce, Hanna Baram, Kiran Boyal, JD Lader, and Lucinda Strol
Adviser: Adam Peruta
Runner Up
Socially Driven
The Socially Driven Staff
Advisers: Melissa Chessher, Adam Peruta
Consumer Magazine Writing Awards
First Person: Personal Essays and Narratives
Winner
“Mean-mugged, Misgendered, and Marginalized“
River Nguyen Chau for The 61% Project
Advisers: Melissa Chessher, Adam Peruta
Runner-up
“ISO Community“
Joey Pagano for Deconstructing the Divide
Advisers: Greg Munno, Jon Glass
Service: How to and Explanatory
Winner
“7 Ways College Undermines Students’ Mental Health
Tess Greenberg and Danielle Wolfenson for The 61% Project
Advisers: Melissa Chessher, Adam Peruta
Features: Reported Human Interest in a Specific Topic Area
Winner
“Our Poisoned Kids”
Sydney Gold for Deconstructing the Divide
Advisers: Ashley Kang, Jon Glass
Places: Travel or Stories about Places
Winner
“Visualizing 81“
Amanda Paule for Deconstructing the Divide
Advisers: Dan Pacheco, Jon Glass
Runner-up
“Pandemic stresses already suffering LGBTQ+ bars“
Allison Ingrum, The NewsHouse
Advisers: Terry Egan, Jon Glass
DEI: Articles Focusing on Issues of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Winner
“My Dorm Room Was a Place That Gave Me Anxiety“
by Olivia Zimmerman, The 61% Project
Advisers: Melissa Chessher, Adam Peruta
View the complete lists of winners.
Syracuse University wins in Associated Collegiate Press Clips & Clicks contest
Syracuse University students took first place in six categories in the Associated Collegiate Press Spring ’21 Clips & Clicks contest, announced Tuesday. These wins gave SU the Sweepstakes win for the 20-21 academic year with 158 total points. SU’s closest competitor, Indiana University, came in second with 138 points.
Sweepstakes totals are given based on wins weighted by placement, and includes wins from both the fall and spring competitions. This is the first year of the Clips & Clicks competition, which encompasses work produced for print and digital publications.
Congratulations, winners!
Broadcast: News Story
First Place
“Facing Racism Early“
Caleb Britt
The NewsHouse
Second Place
“A Key Green Light for Syracuse’s Community Grid“
Ghael Fobes
NCC News
Fourth Place
“Restaurants Struggle to Find Employees“
Ricky Sayer
NCC News
Broadcast: Feature Story
First Place
“NJ nurse Julia Grygon simultaneously manages dance studio during COVID“
Morgan Tucker
The NewsHouse
Broadcast: Sports Story
Second Place
“The Creator’s Game“
Justin Glowacki, Adam Klepp, Jacob Konwiser, Julie Skeval
The NewsHouse
Design: Magazine Page/Spread
First Place
“Study Buddy“
Lilly Chidlaw-Mayen, Jordan Schechter
Jerk
Photojournalism: Feature Photo
Second Place
“Stepping Up for Justice“
Renée Deemer
The NewsHouse
Fourth Place
“Fighting Food Insecurity“
Zachary J. Krahmer
The NewsHouse
Fifth Place
“Strength of Family“
Priscilla Kang
The NewsHouse
Writing: News Story
First Place
“Our Poisoned Kids“
Sydney Gold
The NewsHouse
Honorable mention
“Study Buddy“
Eden Stratton
Jerk
Writing: Feature Story
Second Place
“Having alopecia offers new perspective on life“
Jenna Wirth
The NewsHouse
Writing: Opinion
First Place
“ISO Community“
Joey Pagano
The NewsHouse
The Clio is one of the hardest awards to win. Newhouse creative advertising students just won five.
Newhouse creative advertising students took home five Clio Awards this year, the most in school history. Their wins make Newhouse among the top five most awarded schools in the world at this year’s competition.
Sam Luo ’21 won a Bronze Clio Award and three Clio shortlists, one of which he shares with Olivia Gormley ’20. Senior Maia Baptista and Joe Cutuli ’20 also won a Clio shortlist. The award-winning work was created while the four were students in portfolio courses taught by advertising professors Mel White and Kevin O’Neill.
“It’s always impressive to see the talent coming out of Syracuse,” says Kevin Goff ’05, creative director at FCB New York and a Newhouse alumnus. “It’s even better when that talent is recognized by award shows like the Clios. Huge congratulations to all the students and their professors, Mel White and Kevin O’Neill. I’m looking forward to seeing what they all do next.”
An esteemed international awards competition, the Clio Awards celebrate bold work, honor excellence in advertising, inspire a competitive marketplace and foster meaningful connections within the creative community. This year’s competition was held in April.
White says Luo, Gormley, Baptista and Cutuli created top-level campaigns and their recognition at the Clios was very exciting.
“A Clio is one of the hardest awards to win, both as a student and as a creative in the industry,” White says. “I am so proud of these four students for creating the kind of outstanding work that a competitive and international award show like the Clios would reward.”
O’Neill says the competition prepares students for the professional advertising world.
“Competing in the Clios is a kind of boot camp for the business our students are about to enter,” he says. “It alerts and acclimates them to the deeply competitive nature of the advertising trade.”
Luo, art director, won Bronze in the Student Print category for his McDonald’s campaign “McDelivery.” The ads, which Luo created last August, feature 3-D renderings of the fast food chain’s golden arches reaching through city windows to represent its delivery service. The campaign started winning awards last September.
Luo says he is excited to have his own Clio award to display once it arrives, noting how tough winning the competition is for both students and professional ad agencies.
“Even big agencies, depending on the office, can find it very hard to win a Clio,” Luo says. “The fact that I’m going to have one in my room is mind-boggling. It’s a very big deal in the ad industry.”
Luo won a Shortlist Clio award in the Student Print category for his Jeep campaign, “Go Wild.” In the campaign, he uses extreme closeups of zebra stripes, giraffe spots and crocodile scales to mimic different landscapes for the Jeeps to drive through.
“Jeeps are a very adaptable type of car,” Luo says. “I was thinking about it zigzagging through animal prints that could become wild landscapes. And then the concept was born.”
His Hermès campaign, “The Silk Definition,” won a Shortlist Clio in the Student Fashion and Beauty category. The campaign uses scarves to create natural landscapes. Luo photoshopped a boat onto a scarf that looks like a stormy sea, a snowboarder onto a scarf that looks like snowy mountains and a mountain night scene around a scarf that looks like the Northern Lights.
Luo and Gormley, copywriter, won a Clio Shortlist award in the Student Digital/Mobile category for their digital campaign “Greenscreen” for Connect4Climate. The team created the concept of an Amazon search filter that prioritizes eco-friendly products over disposable or single-use items in the search results when activated.
Luo says the guidance of his professors was invaluable.
“Professors White and O’Neill have a very astute sense of what works and what does not, and you have to believe them. You have to trust them,” he says.
Luo was a student for three semesters in courses taught by White, a former art director. She helped him see the nuances of the craft, of making the design as compelling as the idea, he says.
“She guides students through all the campaigns and works very hard helping us make each one as strong as [it] can be.”
Baptista, art director, and Cutuli, copywriter, won a Clio Shortlist in the Student Innovation category for “CashCan.” The two created the concept after they learned that 88% of public trash cans in the U.S. do not have a recycling bin nearby, leading to many recyclable goods being thrown out. Baptista and Cutuli saw an opportunity for global companies like Coca-Cola to step in and do something to help get their products recycled more often and to make a long-term positive impact on the environment.
Their purpose-driven idea starts with consumers using Apple Pay to purchase Coca-Cola brand products, then using CashCan recycling bins—which would be placed next to almost every public trash can—to recycle those products. The bin scans barcodes and money is instantly transferred into the user’s bank accounts via Apple Pay and Near-Field Communication contactless payment technology.
“We had a feeling people would jump at the chance to make money while they recycled,” Cutuli says. “Maia’s brilliant design and videography along with my copy helped our idea of CashCan become clear in the case study video.”
He says winning a Clio Shortlist is one of the highest honors he has received.
“I was absolutely ecstatic,” Cutuli says. “Hours of concepting and endless revisions, on both my side and Maia’s side, led to this award. This is what it feels like for all that hard work to pay off.”
Cutuli’s time at Newhouse was a valuable experience for him as a copywriter, he says, and Professors White and O’Neill pushed him to continuously create great work.
“I learned the ins and outs of the entire advertising industry in my three-and-a-half years at Newhouse. It was the best investment I have ever made.”
He says O’Neill, a professor he had for three continuous semesters and a copywriter himself, held him to a high standard and helped make his work stronger.
“He gave me the feedback necessary for me to understand what good copy was,” Cutuli says. “Although copywriting is subjective, there is a certain standard that is well received in the advertising business, and all my professors knew every aspect of it.”
Samantha Savery is a graduate student in arts journalism and communications at the Newhouse School.