Looking for money for college and a jump-start for a career in television? The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation (that’s right, the folks who run the Oscars and the Emmy’s) is now accepting submissions for two major scholarship student programs with awards totalling over $100,000: the 33rd College Television Awards competition, and the Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship, which honors the legacy of television’s famed “Mister Rogers.”
Undergraduate and graduate students across the United States are encouraged to apply.
The deadline for all submissions for the College Television Awards is January 11, 2012 at 6:00 PM PST. The application deadline for the Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship is February 29, 2012.
The College Television Awards recognizes excellence in video, digital and film production across 12 categories: Alternative, Animation, Children’s, Comedy, Commercials, Documentary, Drama, Magazine, Music Competition and Music Best Use, Newscasts and Series. Starting today, submissions are being accepted for all categories of the competition at http://www.emmysfoundationcta.
College Television Award winners in each category will receive a cash award, and a few lucky winners will be invited to pitch their ideas to agents. Returning for their second and third years respectively, are the Focus on Diversity and Gender Equality in Children’s Media Award ($5,000) sponsored by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and the Loreen Arbus Focus on Disability Scholarship ($10,000). The latter will be presented to a student producer who best represents people with disabilities within their piece.
During the four decades of this awards program, many of its winners have gone on to pursue successful careers in the entertainment industry, even winning Oscars and Primetime Emmy® Awards. Case in point: last year’s “Best Director” winner, Julian Higgins spent a summer shadowing the drama’s high-profile executive producer and Emmy® Award-winning director, Greg Yaitanes and is set to direct an upcoming episode of House. [pagebreak]
This year, the media partner for the program is MTV’s Peabody- and Emmy® Award-winning 24-hour college network, mtvU, the largest and most comprehensive media network for college students, reaches 750 campuses and more than 9 million college students nationwide. MtvU will be hosting online submissions and judging at www.bestfilmoncampus.com.
The Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship recognizes students focuses on pursuing careers in the field of children’s media, furthering the legacy of the late Fred Rogers of “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. Recipients are selected by demonstrating commitment to early childhood education, child development and psychology through children’s entertainment media. The awards come in the form of four $10,000 scholarships. The Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship recipients will also be assigned mentors from the Television Academy’s Children’s Programming Group. Applications for all four scholarships will be available online beginning October 31, 2011 at http://www.emmysfoundation.
Norma Provencio Pichardo, Executive Director of the Television Academy Foundation has called these two scholarship opportunities: “The College Television Awards and the Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship represent two of the Foundation’s most esteemed educational programs. Each year, we seek out the nation’s best and the brightest students from all backgrounds to help launch new careers in television.”