North Greenville University places in all divisions at 2020 NRB
Image courtesy of Unsplash.com.
Grace Myers, staff writer
On February 24, 2020, a group of North Greenville University mass communication students and faculty departed campus headed to the National Religious Broadcasters convention (NRB) in Nashville, Tenn. When this group returned, they brought back the honors of 1st and 2nd place.
NRB is “The largest nationally and internationally recognized event dedicated solely to assisting those in the field of Christian communications. It is the best place to network with Christian communications leaders, to promote a program, and to obtain serious industry training.”
This year’s convention was held February 24-28 at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn.
Attending students had the opportunity to make numerous media contacts from around the world and to hear from multiple speakers. The speakers from the 2020 convention included U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, and the U.S. Attorney General, William Barr.
While at NRB, the students participated in the Inter-Collegiate National Religious Broadcasters’ (iNRB) 24-hour challenge in the divisions of film, news, and, audio. NGU’s three individual film teams, news team and audio team had approximately 24-hours to create productions that met the requirements provided by iNRB. For example, one film team was given the challenge to produce a piece about hope, incorporating a balloon and the quote, “yesterday is history, tomorrow’s a mystery, and today is a gift from God, that’s why we call it the present,” into the storyline. The pieces were then judged by a panel of judges on several criteria – for example, storytelling.
At the end of the challenge, one NGU film team placed 1st, while the news team and audio team placed 2nd in their respective divisions.
iNRB is described by members of NGU’s placing teams as “full of so many excellent opportunities,” “outstanding” and “exhilarating.”
Senior Bethany Fowler, member of the 2020 news team, encourages freshman communication majors to consider attending next year’s convention. “Just do it.” Fowler said, “The people that you go with, you will have a very tight bond. That’s in your group obviously, and then as the school as a whole, you will make new friends within mass comm which is really good and really beneficial…it broadens your horizons.”
Freshman Justin Brown echoed Fowler’s statement, “Absolutely go for it! Once the project is done, you’re able to go and enjoy the convention. You can hear great speakers and you can learn necessary tips on how to go from college to career.”
Brown also stated, “I feel like I learned a lot about how to generate a good story. I want to attend NRB 2021. I feel like it can do much more next year with this past year of experience under my belt.”
The 2021 NRB convention is set to happen March 15-18, 2021 in Grapevine, Texas.
