Five ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ students recently received awards from the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society for their digital media projects inspired by the novel “The Yearling.”

“Typically, I encourage my strongest students to submit essays to their annual competition, and they have been very successful in the past,” said Dr. Ashley Lear, professor in the Department of Humanities and Communication and the society’s executive director. “This year, my class completed digital media projects.”

Lear said the five students used different online platforms, such as Canva and Wix, to produce websites based on the historic Florida novel.

Rochee Bell created a that featured the perspective of a bear who is being hunted throughout the novel. Alan Pradhan and Yash Sanjaykumar Chaudhari created a fictitious tour company whose offers guided explorations of the novel’s settings. Nandini Shukla and Parth Patel focused their on the protagonist’s experiences in the scrub.

The three student projects were shared at the society’s annual meeting. Members voted to award all five students $100 scholarships. They also received some conference materials, Lear said. 

“Members were so impressed that they are revising the award criteria for future years to include a more expanded interpretation of student work that will consider these types of digital projects,” Lear said.