ASU dominates Rocky Mountain Emmys, showcasing range of talent
On Nov. 8, university-affiliated journalists and storytellers brought home dozens Rocky Mountain Southwest Emmys, an award that celebrates the region's most outstanding achievements in television and visual storytelling. Photo by Samantha Chow/Arizona State University.
Arizona State University stole the spotlight at the Rocky Mountain Southwest Emmys, walking away with an impressive haul of shiny new awards and plenty of bragging rights.
University-affiliated journalists and storytellers shone brightly on Nov. 8 at the 48th annual event as ASU alumni, faculty, staff and students collectively brought home dozens of awards.
The Rocky Mountain Southwest Emmys are a division of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and celebrate the region’s most outstanding achievements in television, recognizing the creativity, craft and passion of those pushing the art and science of visual storytelling to new heights.
Dean Battinto Batts of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication said the night was a testament to the university’s enduring excellence.
“I am extremely proud of the performance of Cronkite and ASU alumni, ASU employees and Arizona PBS in the Emmys competition,” Batts said. “The exceptional work done is a testament to all that we do at the Cronkite School and ASU as a whole to advance media, journalism and creative storytelling at this critical time in our industry. We celebrate every nominee and winner.”
The awards — spanning Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and southeastern California — comprise a wide range of categories, including news, documentary, digital content and photography, highlighting the breadth of ASU’s expertise across multiple disciplines. Entries from Cronkite alumni and current ASU employees stood out for their depth of reporting, technical skill and creative approach to visual storytelling.
ASU’s performance at the regional Emmys builds on its long record of success in professional competitions. The university’s consistent recognition reinforces its reputation as one of the nation’s premier training grounds for future journalists, media professionals and storytellers.
For ASU alum and current staff member Samantha Chow, the award show became a family celebration. She won in the new Content Shorts and Education/Schools Content category, while her father, former Cronkite Professor Michael Chow, took home an award for his 40-minute cultural/topical documentary “Goons.” His winArizona Republic reporters Robert Anglen and Elena Santa Cruz also received an Emmy for “Goons." tied him with his wife, Cheryl Evans — each now holding eight awards.
This competition has been healthy for the Chow family, according to Samantha.
“My mom got her degree from the Walter Cronkite School, and I did too,” said Samantha, a multimedia specialist in ASU’s department of Media Relations and Strategic Communications. “I covered my first bowl game alongside my dad, and a Final Four championship with both of my parents. Now, winning an Emmy like they have feels like another step in that shared path. Even though I’m not strictly in journalism — it’s more of a mix of journalism and marketing — our careers have overlapped in some amazing ways.”
Chow’s colleagues, Joshua Belveal, Amy Chou, Safwat Saleem and Alex Cabrera, also took home an Emmy for a short video, “Is College Worth It?”
“I’m so grateful to help represent ASU among so many talented storytellers,” said Belveal, who was nominated for nine awards this year and won two as editor for Short Content and Photographer Content, and a team award for Education/Schools Content.
“Achievements like this are motivation to keep improving, keep striving for excellence, and keep creating work that aims to make an impact,” he said.
Belveal has collected 10 Rocky Mountain Emmys over the course of his career.
Arizona PBS also took home some hardware for a series of digital-first videos called “Voter Ed.” Hosted by Ted Simons and made in collaboration with the Center for the Future of Arizona, the four videos offer a brief history of state civics.
“Our goal with ‘Voter Ed’ was to create something that would help people connect with and better understand the process of voting,” said Jeremy Cauthen, who is senior director of brand engagement and marketing at Arizona PBS. “The great thing about this project is that it will live on with updates in future election cycles; including the rollout of a Spanish version in 2026.”
Tia Perkin, who co-produced and served as art director of “Voter Ed,” said it took about a year to ready the project.
“‘Voter Ed’ was one of the hardest projects I’ve tackled here at the station, not only from a graphic standpoint, but a storytelling standpoint,” said Perkin, art director for Arizona PBS. “The message is so important, so we really felt we had to get it right and make it as engaging and accurate as possible. To do that, we had to pivot a lot, from scripts to storyboarding to making our explanation of democracy fun.
"You wouldn’t think a Pac-Man video game could explain decentralized voting, but that's exactly how we visualized it in ‘Voter Ed.’ In the end, I think it was worth it.”
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