Allie English hopes she will be able to combine her two majors—communication and environmental science—after she graduates from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in May.
English recently mixed the two together and won a statewide first-place prize from the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters (TAB) in the category of Best Local Use of Digital or Social Media Platforms for “Raising Wolves,” her short documentary on endangered red wolves.
She produced, filmed and edited the documentary as part of her work for the Rising Rock course at UTC in which students create journalism pieces that combine writing, visual and audio components.
Allie English
English “told the story of saving the red wolf through the center and she did it in a beautifully shot video,” said Associate Lecturer Billy Weeks, who teaches the Rising Rock course.
Another Rising Rock student, Eli Rushing, was selected for TAB’s Best Radio News-, Sport- or Event Coverage for his audio version of “Heather’s Story”—a documentary about UTC senior Heather Kounthapanya, who had to learn to walk again after being hit by a car. Instead of focusing on Kounthapanya, Rushing interviewed Athena Miller, the student with her when she was hit.
“I needed a different angle because we were talking about the hit-and-run that happened to Heather. I just thought she had an interesting story and that it was kind of a different angle to approach the situation, so that’s what I ran with,” said Rushing, a senior in communication who grew up in Sparta, Tennessee, and graduated from White County High School.
Weeks said Rushing “did a great job of introducing his listeners to the positive side of Heather Kounthapanya with a little help from her friend.”
In the audio story, Miller said she “sometimes gets flashbacks, either me turning around and seeing her on the ground and the car driving away. And then other times it’s when I got to her face and she just looked so confused and lost, and sometimes it gets to me.”
One judge in the TAB competition described Rushing’s work as a “very compelling story. Such a warm, human touch to the story.”
Three other Rising Rock students were finalists in the association’s awards competition. Brittany Santiago, a senior double majoring in communication and sociology, and Seth Carpenter, who graduated in May 2023 with a bachelor’s in communication, were finalists in Best Radio News-, Sport- or Event Coverage for their audiocast “Miss Nola’s Gumbo,” which focused on Tacia Taylor, owner of Nola Girls Gumbo—an authentic Cajun cuisine food truck in Chattanooga.
Jerrod Niles, who graduated from UTC in May 2022 with a bachelor’s in communication, was a finalist in the Best TV News or Feature Story competition for “Battle Buddies,” about PTSD-suffering veteran Eric Dudash and his service dog, Phantom.
English filmed “Raising Wolves” at Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center in Chattanooga, which is heavily involved in the conservation of red wolves, housing six of the animals. English has worked as a volunteer in Reflection Riding’s plant nursery.
In 1980, the American red wolf was declared extinct in the wild, but in 1987—through captive breeding efforts—the species was re-established. About 220 red wolves now live in 44 captive breeding facilities.
“I’m really interested in both photography and video, so just being able to do stories specifically that intersect the natural world in humanity, similar to the wolf story, I would love to do that,” said English, who grew up in Munford, Tennessee, and graduated from Tipton-Rosemark Academy.
Eli Rushing
“I knew a lot of people didn’t know about red wolves, particularly in this area. It’s a species that I don’t think a lot of people know exists, and so I figured it would be really helpful and good to try to raise awareness for them,” she said.
Rushing said he and Miller had a conversation of about 40 minutes that he edited to three minutes.
“I sat down with her and talked about what had happened that night and how she had dealt with some of the shock of that situation,” he said. “She is a little soft-spoken. I definitely would consider her to be an introvert, but I felt like we were able to cover the topics and she was a very willing participant.”
His career goals involve sports journalism, especially the National Basketball Association’s Memphis Grizzlies.
“I have always had the dream of doing sports journalism because I’ve always loved sports. I’ve not really ever been that good at them, but I’ve always felt like I had a knack for storytelling,” Rushing said.
“I’m not sure what the future holds, but I do know that editing audio and being able to tell a story in that format is something that is going to be valuable, no matter where my career takes me.”
Click below for Eli Rushing’s audio with Athena Miller
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