Regent University Students, Alumni, and Faculty Earn Multiple Awards at the 2026 Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts

March 24, 2026

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (March 24, 2026) — Regent University’s School of Communication & the Arts (SCA) earned multiple awards at the 2026 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Festival of Media Arts, an international media and broadcast competition drawing more than 2,350 entries from colleges and universities across the country and around the world.

“It’s an honor for our students, alumni, and faculty to be recognized for excellence in media production and scholarship at this year’s Broadcast Education Association conference,” said Simon Tarr, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Communication & the Arts. “Our professors are active Christian leaders in their fields who teach students that the best way to honor God with their gifts is to develop them fully. Eight festival awards and top research honors across multiple divisions demonstrate that rigorous faith and rigorous craft are inseparable.”

Regent students earned eight awards, including wins in three categories new to the university: Audio Production, Commercial Spots, and Television News Reporting. Student Seth Krispin earned first place in the Sound Engineering and Production category for Boy From Two Blocks Down — marking Regent’s first top placement in Audio Production at the festival. In the Student Film and Video Competition, Josiah Rozek, Will Freestone, Beatrice Williams, and Greta Brennan captured third place in the Spots category for their Bubbles Commercial.

Six additional Awards of Excellence were presented across multiple categories: McKenzie Glass received recognition in the Micro-Documentary category for A Stable Way; Will Freestone, Christina Couch, Josiah Rozek, and Jack Bartig for Smiley Face, and Jillian Scott and Madison Couch for The Stand, both in the Film Mini Narrative category; Landon Beeler in the Spots category for Nimbus Workspace; Josiah Rozek in the Television Short Feature Reporting category for Canaries in the Coal Mine; and Jared M. Robinson in the Short Narrative Film scriptwriting category for Out of Frame. Rozek’s Canaries in the Coal Mine holds a special distinction as SCA’s first undergraduate journalism honor at the BEA Festival.

Regent’s achievements this year extended beyond student competition. Assistant Professor of Film & Media Arts Chris Easterly was named the recipient of the 2026 BEA Textbook Award for his book Writing, Making, and Distributing Your Short Film: How the Short Film Can Advance Your Craft and Career, published by Routledge. The award recognizes an outstanding textbook written by a BEA member in the field of broadcasting and mass communication.

Faculty and doctoral researchers from Regent’s Department of Journalism & Communication Studies also made a strong showing at the annual conference. Dr. Stephen Perry, Department Chair of Journalism & Communication Studies, received the Top Research Presentation prize in the Religion and Media division. Dr. William Brown, Professor of Journalism & Communication Studies, co-authored a second-place open paper in the Research division with alumnus Dustin Serrano Ardine. Alumnus George Bovenizer won both the Top Research Presentation and Outstanding Article of the Year in the Journal of Radio and Audio Media, and five current Regent doctoral students had their research juried into conference presentations.

The BEA Festival of Media Arts is an international refereed exhibition of faculty creative activities and a national showcase for student work. It seeks to enhance and extend creative activities, teaching, and professional standards in broadcasting and other forms of electronically mediated communication.

For more information about the Regent University School of Communication & the Arts, visit regent.edu/sca.

About Regent University

Founded in 1977, Regent University is America’s premier Christian university, with nearly 14,000 students studying on its 100-acre campus in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and online worldwide. The university offers associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in more than 150 areas of study, including business, communication and the arts, counseling, cybersecurity, divinity, education, government, law, leadership, nursing, healthcare, and psychology. Regent

University has been ranked the #1 Best Online Bachelor’s Program in Virginia for 14 years in a row (U.S. News & World Report, 2026) and the #1 Best Christian College in America (Bible College Online, 2025).

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