Under the bright lights of Paramount Center’s Black Box Theatre, Emerson College’s School of Communication celebrated students’ accomplishments at its seventh annual award show. The event on April 6 saw 24 students taking home trophies, with some even receiving cash prizes.

Each department within the school handed out awards, including communication studies, communication sciences and disorders, marketing communication, and journalism. This was the first time all departments participated in giving awards in the ceremony’s history. Students accomplishments ranged from researching the tourism industry and creating talk shows to engaging the Emerson community, addressing gaps at the college, and beyond.

Speakers noted this year’s high community participation, with 73 nominations across the four SOC Award categories, and a total of 79 nominations for the academic department awards. Students could nominate their peers or themselves for various awards, with faculty also being able to nominate students. 

“[Students are] working hard. They’re striving, they’re achieving, sometimes failing. But in doing that, they’re getting noticed and appreciated,” said Paul Pegher, the School of Communication’s director of operations, in an interview with The Beacon. “This isn’t comprehensive, but it is our attempt to open those lanes for people to think of others.” 

The winner selection process began in February, following an email that invited all students and faculty in the School of Communication to submit nominations. Deans and chairs of the different departments used “weighted decision making” to determine finalists.

“It’s a pretty thorough process of going through and assessing the qualities of the nominations. It’s not as if there aren’t specific scores or criteria. We really have to kind of use our sense of judgment,” Pegher said. “It’s a lot of thought put into it by very thoughtful people.”

Elani Waight, a senior marketing communication major who won the Outstanding Undergraduate Research award for her study on Belize tourism, said she appreciated that the awards highlight students from majors that do not typically get their time in the spotlight.  

“In a school like this, a lot of the focus goes on to liberal arts stuff more likely. There’s the EVVYs, there’s [the] ERA awards …” Waight said. “Students [from marketing and public relations] have these really cool interests and things that they like to explore, and it’s really important to highlight and encourage all the other students to feel passionate about their work as well.” 

Originally from Belize, Waight developed a yearlong marketing campaign for Cohune Palms River Cabanas in Belize. She conducted her research as a directed study, meeting with a professor once a week to guide her through each step. Waight’s research found that, because the country was only 44 years old, it had been under-researched. This made her one of the first to study how Belize could appeal more to U.S. ecotourists than other, more established Central American countries.

“I feel like there’s so much opportunity and growth there,” she said. “It’s the No. 1 growing country in Central America and the Caribbean right now. And a lot of people still don’t know that.” 

Waight said she was grateful that her research both enriched the country and, through its recognition, raised awareness of the country’s limited research. She plans to return to Belize in the near future to implement her plans, specifically aspiring to work with the Belize Tourism Board on destination marketing. 

“Being from Belize and being able to put my work into my country and for people to be able to recognize that meant a lot to me,” she said.

Logan Braden, a junior sports communication major who was named Most Valuable Peer in communication studies, said the award had come as a shock.

“The last thing on my mind was actually winning. So when they said my name, it was sort of like, ‘Oh, really? 
I won,’” he said. “Whoever voted [and] wrote my name down, it means a lot. And I hope to continue to be someone they can rely on.” 

Braden left his spot as a pinch hitter and second baseman on the Emerson baseball team after an injury, which he said has given him more free time to meet new people. His Emerson Channel Sports show, “Double Vision,” hosted with fellow sports communication major Cameron McAllister, has helped him to connect with athletes and people both inside and outside Emerson’s sports community.

“We have professors who will come up [to me], or the dining hall workers are like, ‘We see you on the TV,’” he said. “It’s just nice getting to sort of have those interactions with people you wouldn’t expect.” 

Averie Morren, a senior communication studies major, won the Creativity and Innovation award from the School of Communications. She was recognized for her Emerson Channel comedic talk show, “The Afterparty,” in which she interviews students on a variety of subjects, such as whether they were Team Jacob or Edward and what they thought about performative male culture on campus. Her guests have ranged from drag performers to basketball captains. 

“I’ve always been interested in the media and people. I love to hear about different people and bring [different] cultures,” Morren said. 

Morren had previously tried to bring a comedic talk show to the spotlight in fall 2024, although that plan was rejected by the Emerson Channel executive board. Rather than giving up, she went back to the drawing board and focused more on combining comedy and culture. The show was approved and produced in spring 2025.

“There’s not many live shows at Emerson that had as many viewers and still ha[s]as many viewers of that show,” she said. “Being able to receive that award meant a lot because it meant that my work was recognized in a positive light … Just being able to get recognized for my own thoughts. It means a lot.” 

Sophomore Bushe Wang, a marketing communication major, won the Civic and Community Engagement award. As vice president of the Class of 2028, Wang created a biweekly news report to help students stay more engaged with Emerson organizations and campus events.

“Most of the events [at] Emerson College are raised by some individuals or organizations. We don’t have a central communication system,” Wang said.

Wang also sought to bridge the communication gap between students and administrators, proposing a plan to create a space where students could meet with Emerson President Jay Bernhardt face-to-face to ask their questions. He hopes the proposed town hall could give students the opportunity to ask about college finances and programming. 

Some students’ work impacts extend beyond Emerson’s Boston campus. Carter Castaneda, a senior communication sciences and disorders major, also won the Outstanding Undergraduate Research award. He created an informational website with consistent formatting that aims to inform parents about early intervention for children with developmental language disorders. 

After tracking a public website that informed parents on the subject, Castaneda noticed a technological gap in the page’s accessibility and information. He found a lack of regulation regarding when and how children are admitted to early intervention programs. 

“Something that kept coming up again in our research was that there was no other research. So we just kept having to redefine what our scope was and go through all of these different websites and see the gaps in what is represented,” he said.

Castaneda emphasized the opportunity the award ceremony provided to connect with faculty and students from other majors who have different perspectives and skill sets. 

“Just being in a space with so many people that care so much about what they’re doing, it definitely gave me a lot of resources to talk to those people and connect about what they’re doing,” Castaneda said.