USU Ag Communications and Journalism student wins Emmy Award as assistant producer of news project

LOGAN, UT – Morgan Perkins, a senior ag communications and journalism student at Utah State University, recently received an Emmy from the Society of Professional Journalism as part of  a class project. 

Perkins’ team magazine piece was titled “Cache Rendezvous: Better than we found it” which focused on land, water, and air right here in Cache Valley. Production from the very start to the very end took about the entire semester. Each member had a different role they needed to complete for the project to work. 

Perkins was chosen to be the assistant producer, which she says makes the award that much more special. 

“I got to put a lot of the piece together and got to focus on the little details,” Perkins said. There were a lot of other entries in the contest, totaling over 200 different entries.  

 Once they got their feedback from SPJ, Perkins said it was when they saw all their hard work come together. The judges loved their piece and all the other parts of the production package as well.  

Perkins was the only ag communications student, and she said  this piece allowed her to showcase her degree. 

“It was really cool because agriculture affects land, water, and air,” Perkins said. “A lot of the resources that we used for the story were in connection to my degree.” 

 Perkins said the skills that she used for the project she learned from her degree and the faculty that Utah State University has to offer. She felt that the curriculum that she had taken part of really prepared her for her future in broadcast journalism. 

She said earning this award shows that she can work hard as part of team, but also showcases her skills as a journalist.  

“The Emmy is an elite award given to students and for us to be a part of that, it showed that the professors thought it was good enough and then we ended up winning,” Perkins said.  

Their story was also featured on Utah Public Radio. Perkins said  it was extra special because it was for more than just a school project. 

Perkins said her favorite part was the ups and downs of the project. Sometimes tensions were high and sometimes morale was low, but Perkins said all these things brought the team closer together. 

She also said that they were also under scrutiny from their professors. In the end, watching it with them and hearing their praise made it all worth it.