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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, April 21, 2016 | 10 Sheridan students up for Emerge Media Awards by Nathan Howes Special to the Beaver Half a dozen Sheridan College students in Oakville are being commended for their work in media studies. Six students, five from the broadcast journalism program, have been nominated for the Emerge Media Awards, which recognizes the achievements of Canadian journalism, media studies and communications pupils. Heather Delph (Public Relations-Corporate Communications), Rachael Aragona, Taylor Gibara, Tariq Mashal, Max August and Quintin Bignell are finalists in the Advertising and Multimedia Production categories, respectively. Winners will be announced Monday, April 25 at a dinner and ceremony in Toronto, organized by public relations students at the University of Guelph-Humber. "Your hope as a journalism teacher is that you're actually going to teach people how to make a difference in the world. Heather Delphe topic seriously enough. They know plastic is not biodegradable and it takes (hundreds) of years to disintegrate. Littering, using plastic and not recycling it properly is destroying our planet," said Gibara, the website community editor. Tariq Mashal, project coordinator, said many people are unaware of the amount of plastic material contained in some of the products they buy. "As soon as it's down the drain, it's in our water. Animals eat it and bigger animals eat smaller animals. Basically we're eating plastic without really realizing it," said Mashal. "I'm sure everyone learned so much from this project because of how harmful microbeads are." Before starting the project, everyone in the program pitched ideas for the website's theme, Bignell said, noting plastic received the most votes. "We tried our best to work together as a cohesive unit to make sure what the writers were composing. We had supporting graphics and video. Everything was working together," said Bignell, the web designer. The collaborations went smoothly because students viewed the website as more than just a graded assignment, August said, who was a writer. The second annual Emerge Media Awards will also recognize entries in written word, photography, videography, graphic/ Sheridan College media class is pictured. Among the students being honoured are: Rachael Aragono, Taylor Gibara, Tariq Mashal, Max August and Quintin Bignell. Teachers are Cheryl Vallender, journalism and new media professor at far right of photo and Nicole Blanchett-Neheli, co-ordinator of the broadcast and journalism program, far left. | photo by Riziero Vertolli ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog or facebook.com/HaltonPhotog) It's not just about necessarily getting a big scoop, but having long-term impact," said Nicole Blanchett Neheli, current Journalism and JournalismBroadcast co-ordinator. The second-year broadcast journalism students are contenders for the Multimedia Production award for their roles in creating the website, May Contain Plastic, a project Know your goals so you can choose your investments. Marc Nutford - Financial Advisor 2387 Trafalgar Road, Unit E2, Oakville, ON L6H 6K7 905-844-4043 · www.edwardjones.com/marc-nutford for the Online News Production class. "This is the kind of (website) that can change people's views and make a difference in the world. You can't be much prouder of that if your students can achieve something like that," said Blanchett Neheli. May Contain Plastic, which took four months to finish, explores the environmental and health impacts of plastic, Aragona said, noting the site is divided into four main categories. "Originally, we thought it was just going to be a student-run project. We knew we were going to come out with an end result, but we didn't think the outcome would be so big. To see all of our hard work pay off is really rewarding," said Aragona, project coordinator. Gibara said the site was a "good idea that started really small." It taught the group about plastic consumption and contamination affecting aquatic life. "A lot of people don't take this As a Maid Right owner you have my quality guarantee with every clean. FREE Save $25 off your Schedule 3 cleans, 1st regular service clean and off4th yourfree* 4th get$50 the SM SPECIAL $ * 75 Off CLEAN *Receive the 4th of four cleans at no charge up to $125 Not valid on prior services. *Not valid value. on prior services. Not redeemable for redeemable cash. Applies to cash. new customers only. Not for Applies to new customers only. 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The design project had to be "visually-appealing," she said, as the goal was to have recipients of the package open it and not throw it out. The parcel, which took Delph about a week to put together, contained a letter, information pamphlet and a RSVP card with return envelopes to order tickets. "Food and wine are a passion of mine, so I thought it would be a great way to combine the two things and design something I really like. It's an area that I would like to explore later on in my career," said Delph. This is the final year for broadcast journalism because it merged with print to become the Journalism program. The Sheridan Sun ended its print production in December 2015 after 44 years, which is partly attributed to sustainability and saving paper, and the merging of the two programs, Blanchett Neheli said. "If there are stacks of newspapers sitting there when the same content can be shared online, it was a question of... `Do we need the printed version in order to share the information?'" she asked. "From a perspective as a teacher, as long as they're learning the skills they need to work in any newsroom, that's what matters." To view the May Contain Plastic website, visit http:// maycontainplastic.com.