Dos Pueblos High School’s student television network, DPNews, received 10 student production awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences this past week. The awards were given within the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the organization and recognized DPHS’s current student and alumni video projects.
“I won the award for my PSA ‘A Break Up With Lawns’ that I made with Sam Mitchell and Jonathan Harling for DPNews,” DPHS alumni Rocky Thoman said. “We originally made it last year, 2025, for a local city ‘WaterWise’ competition, which DP competes in every year. This was my third or fourth time competing, but I never really took it seriously until this year, where I decided to really try to win.”
Thoman said that creativity was the most challenging part of this project because “anyone can make a boring video,” and he “[wants] to stand out by being creative.”
Other DPNews students won various other awards, such as commercial awards, director awards, photographer awards, and a NewsCast award given to the entire DPNews staff from the Student Television Network competition in Tampa, Fla.
“It means a lot winning another national award even after retirement,” Thoman said. “That just shows how goated I am. I want to shout out my gang, Sam Mitchell and Jonathan Harling, and shout out DPNews for continuing to submit my videos for competition even after my retirement.”
The full list of Student Production Awards students received includes:
Non-Fiction: “Breaking the Oil Chain” by Ari Ludkovski (10), Casey Engel (10), Michael Shinn (10), and Kieran Learmonth (11).
PSA: “A Breakup With Lawns” by Rocky Thoman, Sam Mitchell, and Jonathan Harling.
Commercial: “NFHS Covering it ALL” by Townes Widger (11) and Stephen McElroy.
Director: “Your Story Starts Here” by Alex Gardiner, Everett Womack (12), Sam Blakely, Abby Selzler (11), and Selah Blackwell (11).
Photographer: “The Dark Watchers” by Evan Pinsker (12) and Tyler McCutchen (11).
Talent: “Purpose In Every Frame” by Sophia Pixley.
Editor: “Purpose In Every Frame” by Sophia Pixley.
Newscast: “DPNews Live From Tampa Bay” by Natalee Zbinden, Alex Gardiner, Nathan Vincent, Sophia Pixley, Micah Barnhart (12), and the DPNews Staff.
