Three Washtenaw Community College students brought home four first-place trophies from the Michigan chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences during its 47th annual Student Production Awards.
WCC students have now won 53 first-place awards since first entering the Student Production Awards contest in 2012. Only Michigan State University has won more of the awards, which are open to all colleges and universities in the state.
The 2025 award winners were announced during a ceremony on Sunday, April 27 in East Lansing.
WATCH WINNING VIDEOS: One for the Pigeons | The False Finish of Thee Spyder | Bleed
Sarah Burgess, a 20-year-old in the Digital Media Arts associate degree program, won two awards. She took top honors in the Animation/Graphics/Special Effects category for “Within a Memory,” a personal piece she created following the death of a 10-year-old nephew; and also won the Music Video category for “One for the Pigeons,” which she created as fan content for a song of the same name by the band Wunderhorse.
The other WCC winners were Meg Stoker and Jake Watkins. Stoker was named Best Director for her short horror film “Bleed (for your art).” Watkins took first-place in the Non-Fiction Short Form category for “The False Finish of Thee Spyder,” a mini-documentary he directed and produced.
Let’s meet each of the three WCC award winners:
SARAH BURGESS
The NATAS-Michigan Student Production Awards are nothing new for Burgess, who won a high school version of the award while she was a student at Saline High School. But the 20-year-old said she was “very shocked” to win a pair of awards in this year’s college competition.
The surprise came primarily because she was very familiar with the strong work of her competitors. In a nod to the quality of the WCC Digital Video and 3D Animation programs, every nominee she was going head-to-head against in her two categories were fellow WCC students.
In the Music Video category, the other finalist was a production by Bob Fike, who has helped mentor Burgess as a class technician. Similarly, the other finalists in the Animation/Graphics/Special Effects category were WCC students Brenna Sikora and Karsyn Beauchamp. Burgess served as a class technician in one of Beauchamp’s classes.
“They’re all amazing animators, so I just wasn’t expecting to win at all,” Burgess said. “The video program itself is such a collaborative space and we help each other grow. It’s a great community to be a part of.
“I’m so honored to have won. All of my competitors are amazing and the works they made were outstanding. I was honored to be nominated alongside them.”
WCC’s nine overall nominations were the second-most from any Michigan college or university, trailing only Michigan State University (18). Other colleges to receive nominations include Ferris State University (6), Madonna University (3), Hope College (1) and Mott Community College (1).
Burgess aspires to work as a graphic design video editor, but also loves to work with production design – creating costumes and props – for films and theater.
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MEG STOKER
Stoker, 35, has certainly made the most of her return to college. The Michigan Reconnect scholarship recipient took three classes during Fall 2024, her first semester at WCC, where she enrolled to pursue a Fine and Performing Arts associate degree.
One was ART 111: Basic Drawing I, during which she created a drawing entitled “Consume” that earned her a Promising Artist, Two-Dimensional award at the annual WCC Student Art Show. Another was VID 105: Foundations in Digital Video I, during which she produced her Student Production Award winning entry.
“It’s really weird, I definitely am suffering from imposter syndrome,” Stoker said with a laugh. “Being my first semester back in school for many years, I wasn’t sure how I was going to do. I was surprised by both (awards), but more so the video award. The competition was so talented, I didn’t think there was any way I was going to win.”
Stoker’s short horror film about a troubled artist having a paranormal conflict with a portrait she created gave her an opportunity to showcase her own artwork. After spending years creating digital art as a hobby, she enrolled at WCC to fine-tune her drawing and painting skills.
“Right now, I just have a general goal of improving as an artist and kind of testing the waters of what’s possible because I’ve never really been involved in an art community,” said Stoker, who recently returned to Michigan after spending eight years in Arizona. “I think teaching art would be super cool, but right now I’m focused on developing my actual art skills and getting involved with the community and seeing how actual artists thrive.
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JAKE WILKINS
After a 15-year career in the audio industry, Wilkins had an itch to create his own visual art. He enrolled in the Digital Media Arts associate degree program at WCC, which allows students to select classes from throughout the multi-disciplinary department.
He started the program thinking Photography may be the right creative outlet for him. But after taking his first Digital Video Production course, Wilkins was hooked. He switched his major to focus on that medium and began working on award-winning projects.
His winning entry, “The False Finish of Thee Spyder,” is an 11-minute documentary about a 40-something professional wrestler in Detroit who overcame health problems, a divorce, job loss and depression to find a new meaning to life in the wrestling ring.
Wilkins, 34, was also nominated for a Student Production Award in the Non-Fiction Long Form category for a 30-minute documentary he directed and produced entitled “Busy Bee.” Both were created for a VID 125: Foundations of Digital Video II class.
“Being an audio guy for the last 15 years, I realized I wasn’t having a lot of fun,” Wilkins said. “So I tried to find a different path. When I created a documentary for my first project in VID 105, that was fun. I tried another in VID 125 and that got me completely addicted.
“I never thought I would be doing film or video, so to receive an award for something like that, I was kind of flabbergasted being in that spot."
Tags: Awards, Digital Video Production, Student Production Awards, Video Production