LI News Tonight Students and Staff Garner Media Awards
Old Westbury, N.Y., July 7, 2006: Press Club of Long Island (PCLI) recently honored 13 current and former New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) LI News Tonight students and staff members at its annual Media Awards Dinner. LI News Tonight is NYIT’s student-staffed, nightly newscast. The awards, which are presented for excellence in journalism, were presented by members of the PCLI’s Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists on June 8 at Woodbury Country Club.
NYIT alumnus and News 12 Long Island photographer Michael DelGiudice (B.F.A. ’84, M.A. ’86), who was part of LI News Tonight’s first year, garnered eight awards – the most of any nominee. DelGiudice and his News 12 Long Island colleague, Peter Shapiro (M.A. ’03), each received the award for Outstanding Long Island Photojournalist. Other NYIT LI News Tonight alumni winners were David Garden (B.F.A. ’98), Jim Luning (B.F.A. ’96), Elizabeth Hashagen, Greg Cergol and Sean Gerien.
LI News Tonight staff members Carol Pack (B.F.A ’86, M.A. ’87), chief correspondent; Ken Eckhardt, news director; and Audrey Marrone Hampton, interim production coordinator, were the winners of the Television - Business/Economic/Financial category award for their news package, Put to Service. The piece focused on jail inmates who were moved to work crews to prepare them for job opportunities.
In addition, LI News Tonight interns Krista Watzel and Naveen Dhaliwal were named Outstanding College Journalists and were each awarded a $1,000 scholarship. Their work was judged on story content, delivery and how well their news packages were edited.
“We are very proud of our LI News Tonight family members and applaud their accomplishments,” says Pack. The first broadcast of LI News Tonight aired on cable television in 1983. The television news program was the first local news show on Long Island and helped to launch the careers of dozens of news personalities.
About NYIT
NYIT is the college of choice for more than 14,000 students currently enrolled in more than 100 courses of study leading to undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees from several schools, including engineering, architecture, business, communication arts and medicine. A private, independent college, NYIT embraces an educational philosophy of career-oriented, professional education for all qualified students and supports applications-oriented research to benefit the greater global community. Students attend classes at NYIT’s Manhattan and Long Island campuses, as well as online and in a number of programs throughout the world. To date, more than 69,000 alumni have earned degrees at NYIT. For additional information, visit www.nyit.edu.
# # #
Contact: mediarelations@nyit.edu