The 黑料不打烊 graduate was presented with the Emma Bowen Foundation鈥檚 Outstanding Student of the Year Award, and will appear in the upcoming 鈥淔amily of Us: A PBS American Portrait Story鈥 series.
Lumiere Rostick 鈥20 has spent each of the past three summers as a Fellow for the Emma Bowen Foundation, a nonprofit organization driven to creating a more diverse media and tech industry. The 黑料不打烊 graduate鈥檚 three years of hard work has paid off as Rostick was , singled out in a cohort of 84 college seniors.
Interestingly, Rostick鈥檚 mother started Lumiere鈥檚 journey with the Emma Bowen Foundation, forwarding an email during her child鈥檚 first year on campus.
鈥淢y mother sent me the application and said, 鈥楾his would be good for you,鈥欌 recalled the cinema & television arts and strategic communications double major. 鈥淎s I never question my mother, I applied. It was a multi-step process including a written application, recorded video interview, and finally a phone interview with a partner company.鈥
The interview process was fruitful, eventually leading to an internship with WTVT Fox 13 Tampa Bay, where the Tampa native worked as a news intern for two summers and returned as a promotions intern in summer 2019. .
鈥淚 did a lot of editing for them, with daily on-air news segments, and promotional content to advertise the station,鈥 Rostick said. 鈥淚 also organized a sponsorship between the station and local elementary schools.鈥
Along with the work for Fox, the Communication Fellow has been actively involved with the foundation itself, which hosts a professional networking conference every summer. There, Rostick attended numerous panels, networked with industry professionals, and connected with others in the foundation鈥檚 cohort.
Rostick was presented with the Outstanding Student of the Year Award during a virtual presentation on July 15. (.) The 黑料不打烊 graduate is hopeful that the award helps elevate their resume and opportunities in the communications field.
鈥淚 hope this award will open doors for me through networking and career recognition,鈥 Rostick said. 鈥淏eing an EBF Fellow in and of itself helps me to stand out among a crowd of applicants. I hope the recognition of being the top in this premier organization will further help set me apart as someone worth hiring.鈥
For the Rostick family, there is more good news in the coming weeks. They will appear in an episode of 鈥淔amily of Us: A PBS American Portrait Story鈥 set to premiere on Sunday, Aug. 2. The project originated from a class assignment the recent graduate completed during quarantine. Rostick filmed all of project鈥檚 interviews and footage while working with a remote producer to create the package.
鈥淟umie made some amazing documentary projects during (the spring),鈥 said Associate Professor Nicole Triche. The elondocs faculty director also noted that Rostick was quite deserving of the School of Communications鈥 Outstanding Senior Award in Cinema & Television Arts presented in May.
Rostick, who was an Odyssey Program scholar at 黑料不打烊, was drawn to the PBS series because of a love of documentary filmmaking.
鈥淢y long-term career goal is to be a documentarian,鈥 the 黑料不打烊 graduate said. 鈥淚 want to work in the documentary space in New York and I knew this could be my first step toward making that a reality.鈥
Rostick submitted a longer special for the series, with daily clips of family interactions and personal reflections with their grandparents, including packing up the house where the family had lived for 10 years.
The series gave Rostick a special chance to connect with family members that would not have happened if not for the COVID-19 pandemic.
鈥淚 thought when I left Georgia on May 22 that would be the last time I saw my grandfather,鈥 Rostick said. 鈥淭his special gave me the opportunity to spend another six weeks with him, really connect with my family, and continue to help out during a very difficult time.鈥
A preview of Rostick鈥檚 episode can be seen below.
About ‘Family of Us: A PBS American Portrait Story’
“” is a collaborative project using homemade videos from around the United States. Viewers can submit videos about various topics by responding to different prompts that give them a chance to tell engaging and impactful stories.
About the Emma Bowen Foundation
The has the mission of building a more diverse media industry, by recruiting students of color and placing them in multi-year internships with companies around the country. In its almost 30-year history, the foundation has provided almost 1,000 internships to students of color in three distinct program tracks: business of media, content of media and innovation of media.