Local student wins big award

Barb and Romeo Duguay could not be more proud of their son, Adam, who recently was awarded the Canadian Nurses 2001 Award of Merit in the student category for his news entry, “Cancer Clinic.”
The awards were created to honour committed health care reporters for their journalistic achievements in advancing the quality of nursing in the interest of the public.
Duguay, who was a student at Confederation College in Thunder Bay when he directed and produced the documentary, was quite surprised by word he had won.
“I was actually pretty amazed when I found out that I had won the award,” he explained. “My instructor at Confederation College, Nikki Burns, had submitted the tape to the contest.
“It was an informational documentary piece for the Thunder Bay Cancer Clinic. I made the piece about a year ago during my fall semester,” he noted.
The award, which is given out annually to individuals both in the print and broadcast industry, is an honour Duguay is very proud to be receiving.
“I am so happy to be getting this award because it helps to exploit student productions,” he said. “Usually student productions do not measure up to professional broadcast quality.
“So for them to honour my work means a lot.”
Christopher Dornan, director of the School of Journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa and one of the judges, believes those chosen to receive the award were picked because of their dedication to the advancement of health care.
“Health-care reporting has become a very specialized beat involving a number of experienced reporters, editors, and producers,” Dornan said.
“News organizations should foster a culture in which one reporter is allowed to develop health care into a speciality–someone who can bring perspective to a complex area and stay on top of the mind-numbing pace of change.”
Currently working as morning editor for Winnipeg’s A-Channel, Duguay is hoping to eventually return to the type of work that earned him his recent award.
“I am hoping to one day get back into post-production work,” he said. “Right now I am doing news for the A-Channel’s Breakfast Show and though it is exciting, I still would like to get back into what I focused on at school.”
With the awards gala slated March 1 in Toronto, Duguay has little time to decide whether he will be able to attend in person or not.
“I know that the awards are just around the corner but I still have not decided whether I am going to go,” he admitted. “Right now I am working 52 hours a week so I think it will be pretty hard to take the time off.
“It is also a pretty expensive trip to take. Hopefully, I’ll be able to decide soon what I am going to do.”