ASU English video receives national award
A video produced by the Department of English at Arizona State University titled “English: Start Here, Go Anywhere” has been awarded the prestigious Spring 2012 CINE Golden Eagle Award in the Adult Education and Entertainment division.
The award acknowledges high-quality production in a variety of content categories for professional, independent and student filmmakers. Past recipients include prominent figures in film and television, such as Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. The designation also advances “English: Start Here, Go Anywhere” for consideration for the CINE Special Jury and Masters Series Awards.
ASU video producer Erik Holsinger, now the director of video communication with the ASU Foundation, directed the piece – in which English students, faculty and alumni articulate the unsung versatility of an English degree – in collaboration with Department of English staff members Kristen LaRue and Bruce Matsunaga.
“We were seeing a lot of misperceptions about the usefulness of an English degree in these unstable economic times,” said Maureen Daly Goggin, chair of the Department of English. “We wanted to dispel some of those myths as well as expose potential students to the flexibility of the degree. We hope this video will help us get started.”
The film hopes to capitalize on recent employment trends. Fear of an unsure future may be driving many students into more profession-based programs, but recent reports have shown that employers are increasingly looking to hire students graduating with degrees in the liberal arts, and specifically those taking classes in writing and speaking.
According to a May 2012 study by Millennium Branding and Experience, Inc., of the 225 employers surveyed, “30 percent are recruiting liberal arts majors,” as compared to those seeking accounting and finance majors (18 percent) (http://millennialbranding.com/2012/05/millennial-branding-student-employment-gap-study/).
To view the video, please visit the ASU YouTube channel: http://youtu.be/m4tvLuLdzkg.
For more information about Cine awards, visit their website: http://www.cine.org/winners/golden-eagle-award-recipients/spring-2012/non-telecast-non-fiction/#3
Written by Megan Davis