On Campus News

Monterey County Film Commission Makes Award

Rachel AsendorfRachel Asendorf was selected as this year's recipient of the $1,000 prize in the Monterey County Film Commission Film Student Scholarship and Awards Program. Asendorf is a junior in the Teledramatic Arts and Technology Department.

The Monterey County Film Commission scholarship program was created to provide financial aid and incentive to students of film and beginning filmmakers who reside in Monterey County or are enrolled in a college or university in the county. The fund was established as a permanent endowment with the Community Foundation for Monterey County. Film commission board member Phyllis Decker is the scholarship program chair.

Asendorf, who lives on campus, is putting herself through school. This school year, she worked as a news intern in the office of strategic communications at CSUMB, learning how to merge news and technology. She is also a production assistant for the Monterey Teen Film Festival, helping manage media and marketing, and had her own political talk show on the campus radio station, focusing on issues such as media influence.

In 2007, she won the Hispanic Heritage Bronze Award in the Los Angeles area for excellence in news writing. In high school in Apple Valley, she produced, directed, edited and filmed two documentaries that were distributed to each student who purchased a yearbook.

Her career goal is to produce video packages and enter the online or broadcast journalism field. "I want to enlighten, inform and entertain audiences through my productions," Asendorf said.

She plans to use the money to buy a video camera.

The scholarship was created in 2008. That year, CSUMB students Estee Blancher and Veronica Calvillo shared the award. Last year, Juan Ramirez was the winner for a film that looked at life in Juvenile Hall.

"When I was looking at colleges, I saw the story about Estee's work on the CSUMB website, and that inspired me," Asendorf said. "I'm pleased to get the same scholarship she did."

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