Two Bergenfield High School Alumni Nominated by Television Academy for 44th College Television Awards
Two Bergenfield High School alumni Isabella Alvarez and Jennifer Sanchez have been nominated for the Television Academy Foundation’s 44th College Television Awards. The Foundation’s annual awards show recognizes and rewards excellence in student-produced programs from colleges across the country.
Winners in the competition will be announced by television stars at the red carpet awards ceremony on April 5, 2025, at the Television Academy in North Hollywood, California. Designed to emulate the Emmy? Awards, student entries are judged by Television Academy members. Criteria for the College Television Awards reflect industry standards of excellence, imagination and innovation.
Alvarez and Sanchez are nominated, along with 14 classmates from Montclair State University, in the News category for their work as directors, producers and writers on a project titled Arizona Stories: Border, Water and Politics. Alvarez and Sanchez traveled to Arizona to work on the project as part of an “On the Road: Reporting From the Field” class for Montclair News Lab. The program aired in May 2024 on Montclair Township’s Local Access Channel 34 and covered a wide range of topics in Arizona, including immigration, homelessness, drought and the environmental impact of millions of visitors to the Grand Canyon.
Alvarez, from West New York, New Jersey, is a senior at Montclair majoring in public relations and social media.
“Being nominated for a College Television Award is more than an honor, it is a dream come true,” said Alvarez. “When I first discovered the news that Arizona Stories had been nominated, I was in the library at my exchange school in England. I immediately ran out of the library and called my friends who worked on this project [with me]. We all began crying and laughing with excitement. We pushed ourselves past all limits, edited and filmed for hours on end, and emotionally put all of ourselves into this project. This award would not just be for us but for the people we interviewed. Their incredible bravery for sharing their stories with us is what made this project so special.”
Sanchez, from North Bergen, New Jersey, is a senior at Montclair majoring in journalism and digital media. She is a first-generation Latina whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Ecuador.
“To be nominated for this award is a huge milestone in my college experience,” said Sanchez. “It's not everywhere that you can have the privilege to even go to college, let alone go to another state with other students and do what we did: storytelling through journalism. To receive this nomination, I showed my parents, who came here for a better life, that a better life is indeed possible; my triumphs and their happiness guarantee me that I can give back to my parents what they left behind in their home country.”
Attending nominees of the 44th College Television Awards will participate in professional development events with media and industry leaders and a special screening of their projects for Television Academy members prior to the awards show on April 5.
About the Television Academy Foundation
Established in 1959 as the charitable arm of the Television Academy, the Television Academy Foundation is dedicated to preserving the legacy of television while educating and inspiring those who will shape its future. Through renowned educational and outreach programs, such as The Interviews: An Oral History of Television Project, College Television Awards and Summit, Student Internship Program, and the Media Educators Conference, the Foundation seeks to widen the circle of voices our industry represents and to create more opportunity for television to reflect all of society. For more information on the Foundation, please visit TelevisionAcademy.com/Foundation.