Ball State University students and faculty in the telecommunications department are being recognized on the national and international level.
In the last month, two people have been awarded for their outstanding achievement in the field of telecommunications. Senior Rick Babusiak received an honorable mention in USA Today's All-USA College Academic Team program.
Babusiak said he wrote about his role as the executive producer of Connections Live, a weekly, 30-minute, student-run television entertainment magazine that showcases interesting people and places all over Indiana, he said.
"It's a tremendous honor to be recognized by USA Today," Babusiak said. "It was very surprising, but it's fantastic. I'm very, very honored to represent Ball State at a national level."
Babusiak credits his achievement to the immersive programs offered at the university, he said.
"You really get an education that's worth something in the real world if you go to school at Ball State," he said.
Instructor Jim Shasky beat out 50 other entrants to win the "Best in Category - Short Form" award for his documentary "Cell Block Scholars" at a Broadcast Education Association media festival convention. Graduate assistant Justin Gladis and two of Shasky's former students, alumni Scott Swim and Laura Huffman, helped him make the documentary, Shasky said.
Roger Lavery, dean of the College of Communication, Information and Media, said Shasky's award brings prestige to the university and the TCOM department because the BEA is an international association.
"I was very pleased with the creativity and the level of professionalism that is expressed throughout the documentary, and we're all very proud of the work," Lavery said.
Although being recognized for his work is always nice, Shasky, who has won more than 30 emmys, said he was inspired to make "Cell Block Scholars" after meeting Delonda Hartmann, a poetry and creative writing teacher at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Hartmann is absolutely delightful and an inspiration to everyone, he said.
"As soon as I talked to her, I wanted to do a story about her," Shasky said.
Of Hartmann's students, 70 percent are convicted murderers, he said.
"[Hartmann] invests a lot of time and energy into what she does, and she truly believes in her students; she loves them with a genuine heart," Huffman, who graduated in 2005, said. "That's what attracted Jim [Shasky] to her."
Aside from Hartmann, the documentary focuses on an inmate named Matthew Stidham who was convicted of murder at 16 years old and placed in a maximum security prison by 17, Huffman said.
Shasky said Stidham was severely abused and tortured by his mother as a child. He was beaten and forced to eat feces and urinate in the closet, Shasky said. Despite Stidham's many misfortunes, he graduated magna cum laude from Ball State while in prison, Shasky said.
The documentary's message is that people are capable of change, Huffman said. There are some prisoners that should be in prison and others that are wasting their lives in prison when they could be a valuable asset to the community, she said.
Lavery said, knowing the students and Shaksy's talent, he was optimistic from the beginning.
"I think that it's story telling at it's best," he said. "I think that you cannot help but be moved by many of the individual stories that are told throughout this documentary and I think most viewers left with a sense of optimism for rehabilitation of prisoners and that education can make a difference."
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