STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

ART

Graduate, February 2008: Annie Caps, graduate student in the MFA in Studio Art & the Computer program, is a recipient of the 2008 Professional Development Grants awarded by United Arts Central Florida. The $1,500 grant will be used for Digital Technology Enhancement and will allow her to attend the 2008 Siggraph Conference in Los Angeles. This competitive grant application was submitted as a class project for "Professional Practice in Art" taught by Brady Robinson, Assistant Professor of Art.

ENGLISH

Graduate, March 2007: Creative Writing MFA student Kelle Groom is the Bronze Medal Winner for her poetry collection Luckily in the first Florida Book Awards. Luckily, her second book, was published by Anhinga Press in 2006. The Florida Book Awards feature seven categories and judges from across the state.

Graduate, March 2007: Mike Carlson (MFA English) returned from military service in Iraq and had an article published in the March 4 edition of the LA Times about his experiences there. Read the article online here here.

Graduate, March 2007: English MFA student Laurie Uttich's essay, "What the Daughter I will Never Have Knows," has been chosen as the first place winner for the 2006 Annual Nonfiction contest from So to Speak, a feminist journal from George Mason University. The judge was Jennifer Lauck, author of The New York Times best-selling memoir, Blackbird and Still Waters (also an Oprah Book Club pick). The prize is $500, and the essay was selected as a finalist from more than 50 entries. Lauck explains, "The writer skillfully weaves her sorrowful thread in and out of a tapestry of time and experience, making it clear that the narrator is, in fact, not talking to the unborn daughter she will never have but to the unborn child that lives within her own psyche."

Graduate, March 2007: Nate Holic and Catherine Carson were invited to appear in Creative Writing Pedagogy Panels at the national conference of the Association for Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). Catherine gave the keynote address at her pedagogy panel and has been invited to take part on the committee to select papers that will be accepted to next year's conference. Eleven English MFA students attended the conference, having had pedagogy papers accepted to the conference.

Graduate, March 2007: English MFA student Nate Holic published a story in The Portland Review and had a story accepted in Mangrove Review.

FILM

Undergraduate, April 2007: American Deluxe, a short film directed by Film student Aaron Brownlee, won First Prize at the Palm Beach International Film Festival's University level competition as well as the Grand Prize. Aaron will get prizes galore, including a pitch session at Mandalay Pictures in L.A.

Graduate, April 2007: UCF Film grad student Danny Daneau won the award for Best Music Video at this year's Palm Beach Student Film Competition for his work with local alt rockers The Heathens.

Graduate, April 2007: UCF Film grad student Erin Kitzinger received the Dr. John Welch Scholarship at this year's Sarasota Film Festival, where her short film The Girl Who Couldn't Dream is playing.

Undergraduate, April 2007: Digital Media students Eduardo Ferrer and Nelson Urena each won $1,000 for producing public-service announcements about smoking and pregnancy for the Florida Department of Health. Their videos, which began as a class assignment, will be shown in health departments and clinics throughout the state and may be broadcast on television.

Undergraduate, March 2007: UCF film student Ben Piety's short film (and winner of the 2005 Capstone Production Grant) The Lonely Lights. The Color of Lemons. was awarded a Special Jury Prize for Experimental Film at the SXSW (South By Southwest) Film Festival. SXSW is one of the world's premiere film festivals, focusing on new directing talent.

FLORIDA INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT ACADEMY

Undergraduate, January 2008: FIEA sweeps the Shockwave Challenge! FIEA students took first place and all three finalist awards. Paul Watkins, Corey Teblum, and Steve Baker won $4,000 with their game "I Herd Ya". The three finalists, each winning $1,500 were:
"Grid Lock" by Mark Punsapy, Victor Lugo, Erin Carroll, and Max Acree
"Jyn-March" by Chase Ruppert, Mark McGee, Jeff Champ, and Yinka Alade
"Alterra" by Jason Mann, Billy Bell, Chris Abelmann, and Reggie Hope (and polished by Rafael Sabino, Billy Bell, Trav Lavin, and Reggie Hope)

Undergraduate, November 2007: A group of students from UCF's Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy won MTV's "Change the Course of HIV" gaming challenge. MTVU, MTV's 24-hour college network, and the Kaiser Family Foundation sponsored the competition, which asked college students to propose a viral, Web-based video game concept to help raise awareness about HIV/AIDS among 15-24 year olds. "The Face of AIDS" game was designed, rapid-prototyped and developed in about one month by a team of five FIEA students -- designers Brendan McLeod and Matthew Laurence, programmers Chris Camilleri and Gabriel Montagne and artist Chip Lundell. The game is a fast-pased puzzle game designed to raise AIDS awareness while remaining fun and engaging. In it, players must help communities of ever-increasing size stop the spread of AIDS as well as quell the fear and ignorance that rises with it. The students have been paid half of the $5,000 first-place prize and will receive the other half when the game is published in early 2008 as a full-fledged video game.

HISTORY

Graduate, April 2008: Deborah Bauer, a graduate student in liberal studies and history, was accepted into a summer National Endowment for the Humanities and the Society of the History of the Early American Republic workshop in Philadelphia. The title for the workshop is Landmarks "Revolution to Republic."

Undergraduate, April 2008: Christopher Mielke, received a spring 2008 CAH Honors in the Major scholarship for his thesis "Re-analysis of the role of Philippa of Lancaster in the Portuguese expedition to Ceuta, 1415."

PHILOSOPHY

Undergraduate, April 2008: Tristan Reiniers received an honorable mention in the Arts & Humanities category at the 2008 Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence. Tristan's poster entitled "The Persistence of Self" was presented under faculty mentor Mason Cash, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, Philosophy).

THEATRE

Undergraduate, April 2008: William Boles was the National winner of the Barbizon Scenic Design Award for his scenic design of Piano Lesson. This award is presented by KCACTF (Kenedy Center American College Theatre Festival) and includes a trip to New York City, $500, a summer fellowship at the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights festival in Waterford, CT and a week-long intensive at the Kennedy Center with esteemed set designer Ming Cho Lee.

Undergraduate, May 2007: Theatre student Courtney Moors won First Place National Recognition at the 2007 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Competition in Washington, DC.

Undergraduate, April 2007: "The Importance of Playing Yardball," a short film by theatre students Kevin Allen, Matthew Deicke, Jessi Riese, and Jordan Arvan, won the award for Best Concept in the Florida Finale of Campus MovieFest, the world's largest student film festival. The film, one of 16 finalists, will be showcased at the National Grand Finale on April 27.