Two recent graduates of the Media and Communications program at SUNY Old Westbury earned top honors in the 2025 Folio Awards. Organized by the Fair Media Council, the Folio Awards annually recognize the best in journalism and social media works from across the metropolitan New York area.
Timothy Coventry '25 and Cody Werner '24 were recognized during the annual awards program alongside professional journalists and communicators, including "CBS Evening News" anchor Maurice DuBois, who was presented with the Fair Media Council's "Lifetime Achievement Award."
Coventry and Werner won top prize in the Educational Reporting - Student category for their segment covering the February 2024 visit to campus of Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado. The segment was produced for student-run OWTV and centered on the lieutenant governor's fact-finding visit to the SUNY Old Westbury as he worked to create the state's new Office of Service and Civic Engagement.
In all, more than 70 awards were presented in a review of the best news reporting, programming and content produced during 2024.
In addition to the student honorees, three members of the campus' staff and faculty served as judges for the Folio Awards. Özgür Akgün, an assistant professor in the American Studies/Media and Communications department, Carol Quirke, a professor in that department, and Michael Kinane, vice president for communications and university relations were among the 40 local journalists, media executives, academics, and community leaders to serve as a Folio judges.
Developed in the 1980s as a way to encourage and reward Long Island news, the Folio Awards have grown over the years. Expansion of news categories to include New York regional and National news as well as social media categories for campaigns that seek to inform, educate or inspire are qualified for entry. Today, a Folio Award is regarded as the gold standard for news that matters
The Fair Media Council is a nonprofit organization that is recognized as one of the oldest, most successful media watchdogs in the country today.
Web Banner Caption (from left to right): Assistant Professor Özgür Akgün, NAME Coventry, Timothy Coventry '25, Cody Werner '24, Derrell Smith '26, Media Innovation Center Manager Dean Harding, and Allison Garcia '24.