Article by: Ethan Long
As the crowd settled down, the lights dimmed and French-electro duo Justice’s song “Genesis” started to blast over the C. Walsh Theater last Thursday. In the front of the theater, Suffolk’s mascot, Rammy the Ram, appeared on-screen welcoming students and staff alike to the 3rd Annual Rammy Awards Ceremony. The audience began to clap as Suffolk’s hip-hop dance crew, Wicked, ran onto the stage dancing to music ranging from the latest Black Eyed Peas to some Lupe Fiasco.
Then, the master of ceremonies, Dr. Dana Rosengard, entered the stage representing the Department of Communications. This year, awards were given for nine different categories, including broadcast news segments as well as photojournalistic pictures. While the event was certainly casual, with certain CJN101 classes showing up as a requirement, some of those up for awards decided to glitz themselves up for the evening.
“The idea originated with Dr. Shoshanna Gerber and Dr. Nina Huntemann, who are still involved with the planning, along with Jason Carter, Dana Rosengard and Sasha Lekic, they do the majority of the work on it,” said Dr. Robert Rosenthal, Chair of the CJN Department.
“The original idea actually came about from one of my broadcast classes,” said Dr. Madmoni-Gerber, who teaches various communication classes including Broadcast Journalism. “One of the students did their last project on an item, a broadcast item, about a film festival at another school in the area. The item was not very good and I remember thinking about all the comments I wanted to make to the students, and while I was talking to them in class I was thinking, ‘Wow what a great idea to have a festival of this kind here, an opportunity to showcase all these great items.’ I talked to Dr. Bob and my colleagues and together we formed a committee.”
Since the conception of the ceremony three years ago, the event has greatly improved, according to those involved.
“The quality of the show as an entertainment device is much better than it was the first year,” said Rosenthal. “The crowd size has grown. I think we probably had about fifty people the first year, and this year and last year we had well over a hundred. The quality of the program has improved dramatically in that Dana [Rosengard] has come in the last two years, who’s a great host. We have a big production number now, we’ve got the Rammy introductions that Sasha [Lekic] and his group do.”
“We got over 100 submissions this time, and it feels like it’s starting to catch, it’s really becoming a tradition,” said Madmoni-Gerber.
The night included performances from Suffolk acts like Vocal Bliss. Miss Boston 2010, Ashley Rizzo, performed opera to the audience’s delight. Winners of the night included Jillian Dumais for her General News photos of the Faye Family, and Victoria Acosta-Rubio for her short feature news piece entitled “Adaptive Sailing.”
Planning for next year’s ceremony has already begun with suggestions for new categories and a new venue.
“A category that we want to integrate is the documentary category. We tried to suggest it for this year, but because we were just starting with the classes, we didn’t get enough submissions so we postponed this category for next year,” said Madmoni-Gerber.
“Next year we hope to do it in the Modern Theater, which, when it’s built, will have a much better projection system than the one currently, and better sound because it’s a theater that was originally made for movies and we’re restoring that,” said Rosenthal. “I think we’ll see if we can put it there in the spring. There could be a little art gallery in the lobby and we can even have a little reception there instead of the Donahue lobby. I’m sure it will be another extravaganza in the future.”
Students looking to submit entries for next year can start looking out for e-mails beginning in the fall.
Pictured bottom left, Jordan Frechtman and John Francisconi, Top: Cynthia Murray, Katie McCabe, Dana Rosengard. Bottom right: Vocal Bliss.
