Date: Feb 13, 2012

Hofstra, Live from the Red Carpet

For Second Straight Year, Comm Students Win Chance to Report at Academy Awards

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY -- A team of three Hofstra students will be reporting live from the Academy Awards later this month after winning the On The Red Carpet College Journalist Contest on Feb. 9th, beating out more than 200 other entries from around the country.    

The winners  - Jackie De Tore ’12; Melanie Rubin ’13, and Beth Laschever ’12 – will be in Los Angeles from  Feb. 23 – 27, covering several Oscar Week events including the Foreign Language Film Award press event and the Governors Ball preview.  They will also have the exclusive opportunity to work with KABC-TV’s On the Red Carpet (OTRC) team and report live during the “On the Red Carpet at the Oscars” pre-show on Sunday, Feb. 26 at the Kodak Theater at Hollywood & Highland Center, as well as visit backstage during the awards show and attend the Governors Ball.      

All team entries were judged by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and KABC for journalistic skills and ability to best represent OTRC at the Academy Awards.   For their three-minute entry, De Tore, a broadcast journalism major, was the on-camera  reporter,  Rubin, a video/TV major was producer, and  TV major Beth Laschever served as videographer.  See their winning video.  

Reflecting on the group’s win, Melanie Rubin noted, “We had a vision for this project, and the fact that the Academy Awards and ABC recognized this little video that all three of us put so much of ourselves into is what hit me most.  But obviously we can’t wait to go to the Awards either!”  All three say they are now trying to catch up on watching nominated films, and are also looking forward to the networking and career opportunities that the trip will afford them.

“Jackie, Beth, and Melanie did Hofstra proud with their successful bid to be red-carpet reporters at this year’s Oscars,” said School of Communication Dean Evan W. Cornog.  “This is the second year in a row that Hofstra students have won a national competition to cover the Academy Awards—a nice reminder of the way Hofstra’s School of Communication works to stay vitally connected to the communication industries, and a fine tribute to the professionalism of our students and the dedication and hard work of their faculty mentors.”

Last February, journalism major Luz Peña and film major Philip Robibero won the mtvU 2011 Oscars Red Carpet Correspondent Contest, earning  spot on the red carpet where they interviewed  celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow, Russell Brand, Mila Kunis and Mark Ruffalo.  

This year’s Academy Awards show will be presented on Sunday, February 26, starting at 7 pm EST, and televised live to 225 countries worldwide. 

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from more than 150 undergraduate and 160 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education and allied health services and honor studies, as well as a School of Law and the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine.

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Related Link: winning video