The 37th Annual Student Awards and Graduation Celebration

The Annual Student Awards and Graduation Celebration was held in the LSU ballroom on Saturday, May 4, 2024. This event marked the 37th year that the Communications Department has honored the hard work and dedication of exceptional students and individuals.

The event began with Film, Television, and Media assistant professor John Vanderhoef introducing three successful alumni who are thriving in their careers.

Christine Cortez, who graduated from Dominguez Hills in spring 2023 with a degree in Film, Media, and Television. She is currently interning at Disney, where she contributes to animation projects. Cortez says she enjoys the behind-the-scenes work and values the creative freedom her role offers.

Just like Cortez, Brandon Cruz graduated in spring 2023 with a degree in Advertising and Public Relations.

Cruz switched majors after he realized during the pandemic that his music degree wasn't going to lead to anything secure. He turned to AD & PR and hasn't looked back since. He is currently a media associate at Starcom global communications planing and media agency.

Gabby Medina also didn't start her professional journey as a Journalism student. In fact, she started as a Biology major that was interested in working closely with animals. After changing her major twice she decided to turn to journalism after her counselor gave her the recommendation.

Despite not knowing what she was getting herself into, Medina immediately fell in love with writing. She graduated in spring 2022 and is currently working on her master's degree in Digital Media from USC while working as a desk intern for ABC7.

All three of the alumni expressed their gratitude to the department and gave a special shout out to the mentors that guided them throughout their time at CSU Dominguez Hills.

"You may feel like you're doing too many pointless things in your classes, but trust me it all comes together," Cruz said. "I use what we learned in classes every day at my job."

After the alumni introductions, five scholarships were awarded to students. Gisell Cruz received the Gil and Shirley Smith Scholarship. Maryam Darwish and Ashley Daze were honored with the Dorothy M. Hagan & Juanita W. Hicks Endowed Scholarship. The HOPE Scholarship was awarded to Tayaba Wazin, Abby Garcia and Camila Cisneros.

The fourth scholarship, the Honeywater Scholarship, was awarded to Gloria Evans. Zulema Palencia received the final scholarship, the Donn E. Silvis Memorial Scholarship.

Creative Promise Fellowships were awarded to Elgin Rebucas, Gloria Evans, Maryam Darwish, Liv Magee and Aurora Sanchez. Screenwriting Promise Fellowships were presented to Liv Magee and Dylan Bertani.

The Journalism fellows, Chase Waite, Danaly Estevez, and Vicky Pineda were also recognized. All three fellowships were supported by the Golden Globe Foundation.

FTVM majors Liv Magee, Dylan Bertani, John Otero and David Cayetano were also recognized for their contributions to Hollywood by the Horns program.

Before the end of the awards ceremony, selected students were called up on stage to receive Outstanding Student Awards for their hard work and dedication to their education.

The first award was given to Maryam Darwish for Outstanding Junior.

The outstanding AD/PR students recognized for their work included Zulema Palencia and Dana Foss.

FTVM also had two winners: Liv Magee and Rhea Anne Masilang.

Journalism had two outstanding students this past year, Eduardo Alfaro and Jasmine Sanchez.

The event closed with one final recognition for Outstanding Senior. This award was given to Journalism major Vicky Pineda.