Faith Cabalum, a recent grad from the School of Journalism, used the experience she gained from her digital storytelling major and documentary production minor to create her film “Over the years: A film about the human perspective on aging”. Her faculty advisor submitted the film to the multimedia narrative storytelling competition of the Hearst Journalism Awards Program, showcasing her ability to craft compelling visual narratives that explore profound human experiences.
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program, established in 1960, supports college-level journalism education by awarding scholarships to outstanding students and providing matching grants to their schools. The 65th annual program offers awards across multiple writing, photojournalism, audio, television and multimedia competitions, open to undergraduate journalism students at ACEJMC-accredited universities.
With the help from co-director, Subah Bhatia, and her faculty advisor Troy Hale, Cabalum won first place in the competition becoming the first student majoring in digital storytelling to win a Hearst award.
“Faith and Subah worked extremely hard and took their capstone documentary film extremely seriously. They worked on it to make the best film, not to just get a good grade. Their hard work is really paying off,” Hale said. “I’m extremely proud of the work they put in and their effort in making a film that gets national recognition.”
This is the first time that the School of Journalism has won a Hearst Award in the Multimedia One category of the competition.
“The school has had a lot of success in the Hearst competition, but it’s really gratifying to see a first place in the Multimedia One category. As far as I can tell, that’s the best showing we've seen in this category. It’s also an affirmation of how valuable it was for us to add the digital storytelling major to the School of Journalism,” said Tim Vos, director of the School of Journalism. “The DS skill set just makes this a stronger program and provides students with an amazing learning experience. I watched a cut of the documentary last spring and knew it was special. Faith and her team did a fantastic job.”
When Cabalum found out she had won first she was shocked and excited.
“It was amazing to hear I placed first, especially since we put so much time and thought behind the film with the intent to create lasting impact,” Cabalum said.
Cabalum’s win came with a guaranteed place in the Hearst National Championship happening in June, along with a $3,000 scholarship. The film has also placed in over 16 other film festivals around the world, and she has hopes to continue to enter the film into future competitions and festivals.
Cabalum hopes to continue to work in telling other people's stories whether it’s through documentary filmmaking, sports media, or any opportunities that arise for her in content creation.
This story was originally uploaded to the College of Communication Arts and Sciences website.
