Coming up in April, 3 Fort Hays State University Students will be participating in a competition called War on the Floor. Hosted by Broadcast Education Association in Las Vegas, Nevada, War on the Floor is a student video competition. The task is for three teams of students to tell the content lifecycle story by developing and producing a series of videos that will be used as a social media campaign during the show, and it will be judged by a panel of educators and industry professionals.
After the FHSU team met the eligibility requirements, submitted their video, and went through the first phase of judging, they were selected as one of the three finalists to represent their University in Las Vegas. Ken Moreno, Tyler Parks, and Ricky Kerr are on the team that was picked not only to go to Las Vegas, but they were the very first team who were selected to go. “I’m very honored to be the very first team selected in this national competition. I enjoy a good challenge and we will strive to represent the University and the Informatics Department in a professional and innovative manner.” says Moreno, a graduate student from Charlotte, NC.
The trio’s project is all about what sets them apart, a major part of that is attending FHSU. “We go to a small school in rural Kansas and while we have a new building and new equipment, we are still behind many places technologically. What we felt set us apart was our ability to make the most of what we have. So, we came up with the idea of aligning ourselves with the people in western Kansas and the Midwest as a whole. These are the people we will forever represent whether it is from the institution at the top of our degree or when someone asks where we are from and I can’t think of a better people to be grouped with. Once we had the concept we worked to fit the ideas into a 90-second window in a clear and concise manner. We wrote the script and then found and created images that fit the script and the overall theme” Parks, a graduate student from Elkhart, KS, said of their project.
Not only is this competition an incredible way to showcase FHSU, it is also an amazing opportunity for the group to travel, and network with professionals in their industry. Kerr, a junior from Wichita, KS, said, “I am excited not only to compete with other students but to also connect with media professionals and learn more about the industry as well as traveling to Las Vegas for the first time.”
As if it weren’t impressive enough that their project was selected as a first finalist for the War on the Floor, they put it together in only one week! Moreno, Parks, and Kerr said that they couldn’t have done it alone. “This project was given to us by Ron Rohlf and Dr. Melissa Hunsicker-Walburn in the Department of Informatics and they deserve a great deal of credit for thinking of us and encouraging us to pursue this opportunity. Without them we would’ve missed out on this amazing opportunity to help solidify FHSU as an emerging power in the ever-changing world of media convergence” said Parks. “Having [them] bring this competition to our attention really proves how much the Informatics Department cares about their students future and how much they believe in their students.”
To learn more information about the war on the floor, or if you want to see the heartwarming video that earned the first finalist place, go to FHSU’s War on the Floor Video.