- Three students representing NAU’s School of Communication—Jordan Vallender, Ava Nichols and Makayla Richardson—earned four national awards at the 2025 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) award ceremony. Pulled from a pool of more than 2,200 entries, the winning projects are as follows:
- The team’s election night coverage earned third place in the Television Newscast (three days a week or less) category.
- The trio accepted the Award of Excellence in Sports News Programming for their Super Bowl special. The BEA also recognized Adriana Sparks and Tony Bacha from NAU’s Sports and Adventure Media certificate program as major contributors.
- Nichols won an Award of Excellence in the Student Sports Competition’s Short Video Story Feature category.
- Richardson won an Award of Excellence in the Student Television News Reporter category.