Four student teams earned nominations, with two claiming victory
Colorado Mesa University (CMU) students recently competed and excelled in the 2025 Heartland Emmy Awards. The Heartland Region of the Emmy Awards allows students from Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming to showcase their talents in the video production industry. CMU offers a plethora of programs where students can showcase their talents, such as CMU TV and various videography courses. At the 2025 Student Production Awards, CMU had four nominees and secured two wins across multiple categories.
Under Instructor of Mass Communication Greg Mikolai’s faculty advising, CMU produced four award-nominated teams. The team that won the “Music Video” category consisted of Izzy Burns (Talent), Wylee Mitchell (Editor) and Maccoy Abeyta (Photographer) for the track Being Nice. Burns’ music career is beginning to take off, and with the support of Mikolai’s Advanced Video Production course, the class collaborated to create an award-winning music video. Abeyta and Mitchell played an important role in the award as well.
“I think this award helped boost my confidence as a video producer and inspires me to keep working hard in this industry,” third-year CMU student Wylee Mitchell stated. “This award means a lot to me both personally and professionally.”
Colorado Mesa University rose to the top of the podium in the “Fiction - Short Form” category as well. Student Crystal Li’s Bad Grade short film proved to be more than just a class project, as it took home the 2025 Heartland Emmy. The short film was written by current CMU graduate Dylan Beland. However, Bad Grade was not the only submission for CMU in this category. Stasis, a film directed by Wylee Mitchell and written by Vivi Garcia, was also nominated.
Maverick Postgame was nominated for the student production category of “Sports Program.” Students Grace Metcalf (Anchor), Breana Sinclair (Anchor), Wylee Mitchell (Director), Jordan Neifert (Camera Operator) and Maccoy Abeyta (Audio) worked jointly to build their weekly athletic updates. This broadcast is put on by CMU-TV where many students are members.
“It [CMU-TV] gives students that real-world experience of what it’s like to be in a news production environment,” Mikolai stated.
Colorado Mesa University is proud to be home to a strong Mass Communication department that gives students the opportunity to be creative, think outside the box and showcase their work across multiple platforms.