Notre Dame’s Audio and Visual Class took first and third place in this year’s Wisconsin Broadcasting Association Competition under the Special Event category. 

The students who received first place are Mitchell Belongia, Elizabeth Bieda and Brendan Giganti. They covered the Green Bay Holiday Parade and the events that took place surrounding the parade.

Third-place winners Kate Van Pay, Dereck Aguilar and Caine Nelson focused their video on NDA’s Kairos Retreat.

“There is some natural ability to tell a story visually, and the studio helps with that skill,” said Jen Laaksonen, AV teacher and the director of The Morning Show. 

Laaksonen was ecstatic that her students placed so highly in competition with much larger schools. The program has been submitting projects for some years and finally placed this year.

“We haven’t been doing it that long, so having a young studio taking first and third is extremely impressive,” she added.

An award ceremony will take place at Lambeau Field on February 28. There will be breakout sessions all morning, and the awards will be given out in the afternoon. 

The ceremony will conclude with pictures of the winners. 

“They’ve been working on creating videos for a year and to give them this recognition is very validating.” Laaksonen said. 

The students in the AV productions class create so much content that receives daily feedback from their peers. They write the scripts and produce every live morning news show.  

The AV program is expanding next year with a brand new Foundations Class. This class is available to freshmen and sophomores interested in learning how to use the studio’s technology. 

The course fulfills a half-credit tech requirement for graduation. 

“The kids will have the skills needed, and they’ll come in already knowing the basics,”  Laaksonen explained. 

The industry-standard studio equipment here at NDA allows students to build skills in lighting, audio, camera angles and editing.