Hello everyone! It’s been a whirlwind of a semester over here at the Rho chapter, as I’m sure it’s been everywhere around the world. We hope everyone is staying safe and staying inside during these unusual times. Thank you to all the first responders and essential workers keeping the world together right now.
SO, a quite unprecedented time in history has not stopped DKA from continuing! I want to give a quick rundown of our semester so far and highlight the amazing work our DeKAs have been doing.
TODAY! We had 23 DeKAs nominated for EVVY awards!! For the first time in DKA history, DKA as an org was nominated in the “Outstanding Blog” category for none other than this Cinejournal right here! A major congratulations to all our talented members for their hard work. We are so happy and proud of you. A full list of all the nominations will be at the bottom of this post.
Now, taking us allllll the way back to February…we kicked off the semester with an award-winning Oscars party thrown by our culture chairs, Fernando Pelaez and Fiona Torrese. The event was sponsored by A24 at Emerson and we packed the Lion’s Den. We also all screamed when Parasite won best picture… ugh take us back to that moment. Our social chairs, Destiny Pineda and Francis DeLeon also made our very own DeKA Minecraft server... one of our biggest accomplishments to date.
We had 22 new beautiful members join our family! Our recruitment chairs Antonieta Bocxe and Lily Sexton absolutely crushed this recruitment cycle. The theme of recruitment was “Make a Statement with DKA”, Tee and Lily planned events like speed dating, an ice cream social and a movie trivia night. The process seemed seamless and we cannot thank them enough for the professional, curious and creative new family they brought in. We can’t wait to see how this new class will make their statement with DKA!
Later in February, on the day of loooove~ we had a candygram fundraiser! This event has quickly become a Valentine’s day tradition. Thanks to Lily Noyd, our fundraising chair who made it all happen and helped spread lots of smiles in the process! Our community service chairs Fernando Barros and Lily Sexton also set up multiple trips to the Ronald McDonald house and we put our cooking skills to the test-- we have to say, Claire from the BA test kitchen would definitely be proud.
Thank you to our Associate Education team (Fernando Barros, Hannah Mittermeier, Emily Turner, and Jules Garunkstis) who helped guide our new 22 associates to members! Even though the circumstances were unusual and the associates learned through online TROT and an online national exam(!), the AE stood by their side and helped to the best of their abilities. They also crafted some great new big/little pairings and we can’t wait to see how all the lines grow!
Our showrunners, Joe Johnson and Somari Davis have done a great job workshopping scripts and ideas with their screenwriter’s circle. We have a few up and coming showrunner events (including a Zoom with Howard J. Morris, the executive producer of Grace & Frankie) that we are sooo looking forward to. Speaking of Zoom (!) our sunshine chairs, Sabrina Oliveria and Fiona Torrese have been setting up Zoom “office hours” where DeKAs can come talk about whatever is on their mind during this weird time to destress. We are so lucky to have family like them we can talk to about whatever we need to.
To our chairs who planned events that didn’t get to follow through: we all know it would’ve been amazing and we thank you for your hard work regardless. Dan Reilly and Antonio Vega-Torres were planning a retreat that we know would have been one for the books! Destiny Pineda and Francis DeLeon organized a white carnation where we all would’ve danced the night away!! And Ben Cantle and Max Broszkowski planned a DKA production like no other. While we are all obviously disappointed these events couldn’t take place, we are so lucky to have a family that cared so much about them in the first place. And hey! This means we only come back bigger and better next semester!
To our executive council, Sam Stenson, Rosana Pena, Emily Cristobal, Jonah Higaonna, Ryan Forsyth, Alex Hahn, Gabe Shapera and Spencer Wright… Thank you for keeping the spirit of DKA alive. Even if we are all in our homes now and not in the chapter room, we still feel the same sense of stability and family as we do in Boston. Our Zoom chapter meetings have been fun, professional and a definite highlight of my week. It’s weird how you don’t realize how much you’ll miss something until it’s taken away from you because of a global pandemic--- (I joke, but I’m also being serious-- love you guys).
Tonight we have our new officer elections and as I am graduating soon, this is most likely the last Cinejournal post I’ll write (It’s Quinn by the way). When I joined DKA as a wee little journalism major I wasn’t sure how I’d fit in with a group of extremely talented filmmakers. The Cinejournal has been such a nice intersection between film and journalism. DKA is an org where anyone can be anything (see: Troy Bolton’s graduation speech from HSM3 to get the full vibe of where this is going). I truly don’t know where I’d be without the friends and experiences this org has given me. All I know is that I simply cannot wait until the day I’m the person that gets to give a DeKA a job. Until then, stay curious, creative and humble (those were always my favorite jewels…) and remember, membership is lifelong!
Yours in Kappa,
Quinn
^That first picture is me in quarantine after I wrote this post<3 Love you all.
EVVY Nominations
Daniel Agmon- Outstanding Supporting Performer for the Screen
Daniella Baltazar- Outstanding Narrative Television Series
Anthony Biancanello- Outstanding Writing for Television
Claire Carvounis- Outstanding Non-fiction prose, Outstanding Podcast (x2)
Quinn Chao- Outstanding TV personality, Outstanding Television Reporter, Outstanding Blog (CINEJOURNAL!)
Somari Davis- Outstanding Special Production
Jaden Esse- Outstanding Short Film, Outstanding Lead Performer for the Screen
Jacob Falberg- Outstanding Variety Television Series, Writing for Television
Ben French- Outstanding Sound Design for Screen
Erin Hattamer- Outstanding Stand up Comedian
Peter Klausner- Outstanding Cinematic Achievement
Julia Laverdiere- Outstanding Single Camera Direction
Kaylee Mattoon - Outstanding Lead Performer for the Screen
Tyler Mashkoori- Outstanding Sound Design for Screen, Outstanding Cinematography
Lily Noyd- Outstanding Makeup Artistry
Daniellea Roberge- Outstanding Makeup Artistry
Claire Rossi- Outstanding Music Video, Editing for Non-Fiction
Lela Schroder- Outstanding Production Design for Studio Television
Carl Stewart- Outstanding Narrative Television Series, Outstanding Print advertisement, Outstanding Cinematography
Tay Thai- Outstanding Documentary
Charlie Welling- Outstanding Variety Television Series
Spencer Wright- Outstanding Podcast (x2), Outstanding Blog (CINEJOURNAL!)