Digital Media Hosts High School Student Media Festival

April 17, 2015

Buena Vista University's digital media department hosted the third annual SHOWOFF Student Media Festival on April 10. The festival allows high school juniors and seniors to submit media projects for award consideration in a variety of categories.

The categories that received awards this year were graphic design, still photography, animation, multimedia design, online writing and original video, and the Digital Media Master award was given for excellence in overall digital storytelling. The first place award winners received a trophy and a $2,000 scholarship to Buena Vista University, and other winners received certificates.

"The BVU Digital Media faculty were excited to see such growth this year in the number and quality of entries for the SHOWOFF competition," said Dr. Andrea Frantz, associate professor of digital media. "We look forward to seeing more award-winning works from these talented young people in years to come."

The award winners are:

Graphic Design

• First place: Brea Baumhover from Storm Lake
• Second place: Mackenzie Rappe from Waukee
• Third place: Ellen Converse from Storm Lake

Still Photography

• First place: Alissa Hageman from Cresco
• Second place: Mackenzie Rappe from Waukee
• Third place: Vanessa Ibarra from Storm Lake
• Honorable mention: Sarah Mosinski from Audubon

Animation

• First place: Jayson Langfitt from Storm Lake

Multimedia Design

• First place: Mackenzi Rappe from Waukee
• Second place: Austin Dean from Dubuque

Online Writing

• First place: Tamera Johns from Granville

Original Video

• First place: Travis Bowman from North Liberty
• Second place: Mackenzie Rappe from Waukee
• Third place: Tara Eckhart from Big Lake, Minnesota
• Honorable mention: Cooper Maahs from Johnston
• Honorable mention: Sam Reynolds from Justin, Texas

Digital Media Master

• Mackenzie Rappe from Waukee

The festival reception took place in the Estelle Siebens Science Center on the BVU campus, and a screening of the student entries and award winners was held in the Buena Vista University Art Gallery. During the festival, emcee for the event and keynote speaker was BVU alumnus Ravi Kumar, who leads the digital strategy for Governance Global Practice at the World Bank in Washington D.C. He spoke about his beginnings as a BVU student new to the U.S. from Nepal, how he learned to be open to all forms of media as a way to reach people and the importance of digital storytelling and its impact on today's society.