December 2003: Vol. 83, No. 1December 2003: Vol. 83, No. 1Class script earns Andrea Herman $30,000 and trip to Hollywood
(Screen) play's the thing for JRL student
When Andrea Herman submitted her journalism class screenplay, "Augmentation," to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last spring, she had no idea she would make history as the youngest person to receive a Nicholl Fellowship.
"Andrea is one of the best screenwriters it has been my privilege to teach," says journalism professor Nate Kohn. "The Nicholl Fellowship is the most prestigious and serious of all screenwriting contests, and Andrea is absolutely deserving of this career-launching award."
Herman's screenplay was selected as one of five winners out of more than 6,000 entries for a 2003 Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting by the Academy, which bestows the Oscars each year. Award winners were to receive the first installment of the fellowship's $30,000 prize money at a gala dinner in Beverly Hills on Nov. 20.
Fellowships are awarded with the understanding that recipients will complete a feature-length screenplay during the fellowship year. The Academy acquires no rights to the works of Nicholl Fellows and does not involve itself commercially in any way with their completed scripts.
Herman's script, "Augmentation," is about a high school girl who succumbs to parental and societal pressures and, much to her amazement, finds happiness through cosmetic surgery.
While the subject matter of "Augmentation" is contemporary and compelling, Kohn credits Herman's writing skills as a major component in her receiving a Nicholl Fellowship. "Good movies require good writing," says Kohn, "and good writing is what will continue to make Andrea successful in her career."
Since the program's inception in 1985, 78 fellowships have been presented and there are numerous success stories among the fellows. Susannah Grant (1992), who joined the Nicholl committee in 2001, got an Academy Award nomination for her "Erin Brockovich" screenplay. Andrew Marlowe (1992) wrote "Air Force One." Ehren Kruger (1996) wrote "Reindeer Games." Most recently, 1998 winner Mike Rich's Nicholl entry script, "Finding Forrester," was a success at the box office.
Herman credits her education at UGA's Grady College for her success.
"Nate Kohn's course taught me to write a screenplay, and he opened some doors that would have taken me years to get through," she says. "This competition has validated my desire to write for a living. This is what I want to do with my life, and I've been given some vindication. And vindication on this level is so wonderful that it's almost hard to process."
Students spend summers helping the sick and destitute
Foundation Fellows excel at outreach
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 Foundation Fellows Travis Reeves (left) and Matt Crim (right) worked with Dr. W. Mlaki at Nkoaranga Hospital in Tanzania. |
The Foundation Fellows, UGA's premier undergraduate academic scholarship program, emphasizes international education and public service—and this past summer was no exception.
While some students participated in traditional study abroad endeavors, internships, or intensive language training programs, others chose international public service.
Foundation Fellows Matt Crim and Travis Reeves spent their summer at Nkoaranga Hospital in Tanzania, a country plagued by both poverty and a devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic.
"As a volunteer in the health services, we had the amazing experience of witnessing African medical care first-hand," says Reeves. "For six weeks, we shadowed the local physicians, worked with the nursing staff, and performed tests in the hospital's laboratory—while learning much about Tanzanian medicine and health care."
Like Reeves and Crim, Ginny Barton and Satya Patel spent their summer in Tanzania, conducting research and gaining invaluable hands-on experience. They divided their time between a center for children's rights, an orphanage for abandoned infants, and an HIV/AIDS counseling and testing center for girls. The experience will inform and influence their planned careers in public health care.
Thousands of miles away, biology and political science major Megan McKee was attending academic conferences while working at a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. There she spent her time monitoring surgeries, seeing babies being born, and accompanying doctors on visits to rural health centers.
"I gained important clinical experience through observation and learned more about holistic medical approaches," says McKee. "More importantly, I was exposed to Southeast Asian culture. I came away with an enormous amount of respect for the peaceful, open-minded, and accepting ways of the Thai people."
For more information on the Foundation Fellows program, go to www.uga.edu/honors/fellows.