For the first time in the history of the college, two students have won national recognition for their video work from the Broadcast Educators Association, said Video Production Adjunct Professor Rick Lippert.

Students Lori Valentine and Trevor McCoy earned honorable mention awards in the national competition for their short fictional narrative for television entitled “Wrong Lane.”

The video poem tells the story of a romance that goes tragically awry.

Valentine is a broadcasting major while McCoy is earning his degree in graphic communications.

Winter weather was a bit of a problem in shooting the video and led to delays, Valentine said.

“The ice storm didn’t let us go with our original idea, so we went with a backstory of the poem.

“I was astonished that our video received honorable mention at nationals, considering we were up against documentaries and other really good projects,” Valentine said.

“So it was really cool to be recognized there.”

In the state competition sponsored by the Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association, the five-minute video took first place in short television narrative.

Since then the short film has been accepted into several film festivals, Valentine said.

OCCC winners at the state level were:

Victoria Harrell, who claimed first place for a short radio narrative entitled “Change Our Thinking,” which is an entertainment piece.

Arie Wylie took third place in the same category for a piece entitled “Southwest Schizos.”

The piece is a radio ad about a fake concert coming to Oklahoma City.

Joel Viezcas won first place in the video essay category for a piece entitled “The Message.”

The video serves as a public service announcement and a memoriam to a friend over the dangers of texting and driving.

After losing someone at his church due to a car accident, Viezcas took it upon himself to honor that victim in his film.

Viezcas was happy he won.

“It was a surprise for me,” Viezcas said.

“I got a phone call from Rick (Lippert) on a Saturday afternoon with the news that I was a winner.

“It’s pretty awesome.”

Joshua Holt took second place in the video essay category for “Remembrance,” a piece recalling the life of a family member who had been lost.

“For us to win three first-place awards is just great,” said Lippert.

“We’ve never had this many awards at one competition before.”

The annual video and audio competition is for works put together by students across the state, many of whom come from universities, Lippert said.

“I think that there is a general condescending look at two-year institutions because they are not universities,” he said.

“It is cool to see my students win against what I like to call the big boys.

“I don’t know if I have a vest that will button anymore because I’m so swelled with pride.”