How to Apply for an SCFM Excellence Award

The School of Communication, Film and Media are making excellence awards more accessible for students starting this semester.

Historically, The SCFM has awarded excellence awards to senior mass communication students once a year at Media Day, a networking event that takes place every spring. These awards are eligible for seniors who have outstanding experience in the field during their college careers. In order to invite more students to apply and be recognized, new criteria and processes have been established.

“We found that by doing it only once a year, we were missing some students,” said film professor Deon Kay. “There’s three graduation cycles so these awards will now be presented to graduating seniors at the end of the fall semester and then in the spring semester to students graduating in the spring and the summer to make sure we’re recognizing all the students who are doing outstanding work.”

The change in criteria has also allowed students to tie the awards to their experiences that will carry them to their future careers. “The criteria are more tied to the curriculum that students [are learning] and also guided towards preparing them more streamlined and effective materials for them to take with them in the job market,” said Kay. The requirements are also more clearly defined, allowing students to tailor their applications towards these goals.

Applying for the awards is a straightforward process. When the application opens, there will be different application links for each concentration. All will have rubrics attached for the required materials.

“Understand the rubric, understand the expectations, understand the criteria and then refine your portfolio and your resume to suit these criteria with the hope that it’s going to make your portfolio better when you’re applying for jobs down the line,” said Kay.

Like everything, the excellence awards are a work in progress that the SCFM is working hard to refine and make accessible to all students. “We do welcome feedback to the process but we also encourage everyone to engage with the process quite closely,” said Kay.

Ultimately, the excellence awards are another accessible way for students to prepare for their careers post-graduation.

While the fall application has already closed, the spring portal will open closer to May graduation. Seniors, keep your eyes on your inbox for the link.

“This is not something intended to be a one-off activity,” said Kay. “It’s career preparation.”