CAM AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENT 2020

Gifted at writing, directing, and producing, Sofia Shapell is also a leader with a strong sense of civic duty. As the CAM representative to the CU Denver Student Council, Sofia dedicated to advancing the interests of her classmates. In addition to her leadership, she is a talented filmmaker, having wrote, directed, and produced the short film, Prom Dress.

Described by faculty Eric Jewett as a "relentlessly creative artist," Molly White is the writer, director, and cinematographer of Mother Knows Best, a thought-provoking film about a woman abducted by an emotionally stunted man. She has also contributed significantly to the film projects of her peers, which she describes as her favorite experiences as a Film & Television major. In summer of 2019 Molly interned in Los Angeles for intern for the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women. She worked on the camera crew of Blocks, and when the film was named a Sundance Film Festival "Official Selection" she was invited to attend the festival as filmmaker.

Digital Design graduate Rachel Dormido has set a standard of excellence for the Visual Arts Department. Rachel, who previously earned a B.S. in Chemistry, an A.D. in from the Defense Language Institute for Chinese-Mandarin, and served in the United States Air Force, has impressed her professors and peers alike. Described as “purposeful in everything that she creates, she understands and fully grasps the need for meaningful design.” She is a research assistant for Augmented Reality Research and had maintained a consistently high GPA. Inspired by organizations that work to apply to design techniques to serve underserved populations, she hopes to follow their example and apply her design skills to create user experiences that are both accessible and a joy to use for everyone.

Illustration student Alex Gomez is forward thinking talented artist. A student leader, who served on the Dean's first Student Advisory Council, Alex is also an advocate for the arts who helped secure funding the for 2019 Illustration Expo.  His digital paintings which are, boundary-pushing and thought-provoking can be found at http://thesis2020.cudenverbfa.com/ilstratn/gomez.html

Bryan Leister
Digital Design, Visual Arts

Bryan Leister works across a broad range of media reflecting his education in design and his career as an illustrator and artist. His illustration work has appeared on the cover of Time, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Der Spiegel and the Atlantic Monthly. His digital artwork, interactive installations and projected video has been shown in regional and national museums and performance spaces.

Eric Jewett
Film & Television

Eric Jewett spent 35 years in Hollywood, working on film and television productions before coming to CU Denver. His professional production and direction credits include the films “American Gigolo,” “Taxi Driver,” “Cat People,” “Team America,” “Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi,” “The Lost Boys,” “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and “Basic Instinct,” and television series “Code Black,” “Weeds” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

Beth Pugliano
Art History, Visual Arts

Elizabeth Pugliano is instructor of art history at the University of Colorado Denver, where she teaches courses on medieval art, Islamic art, and Greek and Roman art, as well as the Art History survey and Intro to Art in the Core Curriculum. Her research focuses on violence and conflict in medieval art, and on the perception and reception of images.

Roma Sur
Film & Television

Roma Sur is a true leader that embeds the values of diversity in her teaching and independent film making. She has incorporated her life experience as a woman and an immigrant to advance diversity, by using her intellectual, creative, and cultural skills to give voice to the underrepresented. As a screenwriter, she finds her niche in narrating cross-cultural stories that channel experience. Her recent feature screenplay, The Rock Within, was a second rounder at the Sundance Feature Writing Lab. (2018) and an official selection at the Stowe Story Lab, 2018. Sur also leads Bollywood Connections, a  student study abroad program in Mumbai, India.

Npaujnpaim (Diana) Lee '20
Music Business, Music & Entertainment Industry Studies

Diana Lee has been awarded the College of Arts & Media Dean’s Post-Graduate International Studies Award. In fall of 2020, Lee will be attending Sunway University in Kuala Lumpur, earning a scholarship towards a Masters in Creative Arts & Media. Read more about Diana's accomplishments here.

Owen Kortz has received a $30,000 Arts in Society Grant to facilitate collaboration between the College of Arts & Media and Urban Peak Youth Homeless Shelter. Kortz humbly began a modest DIY music studio at Urban Peak in 2012 to provide a creative outlet for youth experiencing homelessness. After seeing the positive impact that music was having on the participants he continued to grow the “studio” with the help of CAM student volunteers. In 2020, Kortz’s proposal “Music Studio for Youth Experiencing Homelessness” received a generous Arts in Society grant to facilitate a three-phase overhaul of the Urban Peak studio, including paid internships for CAM students. The grant is administered by Red Line Contemporary Art Center and funded by Colorado Creative Industries.

Yang Wang
Art History, Visual Arts

Yang Wang has been awarded a Getty/American Council of Learned Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Art. The fellowship supports a year of academic research and writing for Wang’s abstract Yellow Earth: Regional Chinese Ink Painting in the Age of Postwar Modernism. The prestigious honor is given to projects that will make a substantial and original contribution to the understanding of art and its history and is selected from a pool of prestigious applicants.