45 students selected for new Carson Center cohort

Students lounge in the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts as sunlight streams through the windows

Craig Chandler | University Communication and Marketing

Students lounge in the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts in November 2019. Forty-five students have been selected as the latest cohort of the Carson Center. Thirty-five students hail from Nebraska, with the rest from Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Thailand.

Forty-five students — 25 recent high school graduates and 20 transfer students — have been selected to join the latest cohort of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts.

This is the fourth and largest cohort for the center, which opened in fall 2019. There will be 125 students majoring in emerging media arts this fall.

While 35 of the 45 students hail from Nebraska, this year’s cohort also includes students from Colorado, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma, as well as Thailand.

“We are excited to welcome our fourth cohort of students to the Carson Center,” said Megan Elliott, founding director. “We have a very thorough and highly competitive application process to find the right students who will thrive in our program. I’m eager to see the creative work of this latest cohort.”

The first 10 students to earn the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in emerging media arts graduated in May.

“It’s been exciting to watch the growth of the emerging media arts program in just four short years,” Elliott said. “The work being produced by our students is stellar. Our alumni will be ones to watch as they make an impact in their chosen fields. And we expect these incoming students to make an impact on day one in the program.”

The Carson Center is part of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film in the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. A key part of its curriculum is preparing students for hugely disruptive forces in artificial intelligence and virtual production that have changed the face of several industries, including film.

Applications for the fall 2023 cohort will open soon. Details will be posted here.

Following is a list of students selected to the 2022-23 emerging media arts cohort by hometown, with their high school listed in parenthesis. If the student is either a transfer or readmitted student, “transfer” is listed instead of a high school.

Nebraska

Albion: Lauren Kohtz (transfer)
Bennington: Nicholas Langford (Bennington Public)
Columbus: Oriana Gentile (Columbus)
Denton: Karl Ring (transfer)
Hickman: Bella Suto (Norris)
Kearney: Haley Grams (Kearney), Olivia Richmond (Kearney)
Lincoln: Brayden Adcock (Lincoln Southeast), Valentina Catalano (transfer), Ana Cazun (Lincoln East), Annette Foreman (transfer), Van Foster (Lincoln Southwest), Alex Gee (transfer), Hannah Gish (Lincoln North Star), Simone Hill (transfer), Na’Taya Moore (transfer), Emma Noack (transfer), Gabrielle Roesch (Lincoln Southwest), Shakia Sallis (Lincoln High), Peter Schmit (transfer), Noah Trumble (Lincoln North Star)
North Platte: Drew Carlson (North Platte) and MacGregor O’Brien (North Platte)
Ogallala: Parker Reil (transfer)
Omaha: Jeremiah Booth (Omaha North Magnet), Luke Davidson (transfer), Benson Ella (transfer), Alexah Fort (transfer), Micah Fullinfaw (transfer), Edison Geller (transfer), Ellie Kripal (transfer), Joann Quach (Millard North), Sam Senser (transfer), Danielle Tyler (transfer)
West Point: Anderson Pascual-Rodriguez (West Point-Beemer)
Yutan: Caelin Wingender (Yutan)