Mount Pleasant, IA – October 14, 2022 — Iowa Wesleyan University students were presented with a 2022 Viddy Award on October 12, 2022, for a video documentary created for World Water Day. Viddy recognizes excellence in how video is created, produced, and delivered. The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals administers and judges the Viddy Awards.
In the Spring of 2022, several Iowa Wesleyan students across the Psychology and Digital Media Design programs worked together to create a documentary titled “The Water Project.” This project won a 2022 Gold Viddy Award in the Long Form Student Production category.
The Water Project began with several students in the Positive Psychology course led by Dr. Cyndi Walljasper, Professor of Psychology and Chair of Faculty, each living on only two and a half gallons of water per day. The experiment required that they use a limited amount of water for everything from drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing clothes and dishes. Throughout this three-day experiment, students documented their thoughts and experiences via video logs, compiled by Digital Media Design students, along with pre-and post-project interviews and a discussion of why the water project was important.
In regards to the creation of the water project experiment, Dr. Walljasper noted, “Thinking about how many people around the world do not have access to clean water, we came up with the idea a couple of years ago to do the water project. For this project, students had to go for three days with two and a half gallons of water to use each day from a jug and they had to carry it around all day. They had to reflect on that, which helped them appreciate water in new ways.”
Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Art Roy Manfredi added, “Sometimes in Digital Media, we tend to focus on entertainment. When Dr. Walljasper brought this experiment to me, it was more of a way of bringing awareness to a specific topic. The whole idea was to take the subject we were given, increase awareness of it, and make something in a digestible format. One of the best parts of this project is that even my students, who weren’t part of this experiment, could empathize with the students who were.”
The students from both programs were invited to a screening of “The Water Project” documentary on Wednesday, where they were presented with the Gold Viddy Award. Congratulations to each student who participated in this award-winning documentary.
To view The Water Project documentary go to: https://youtu.be/TmSsblEWEGM
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