Julia Sand/Winonan

Four Winona State University graduates have been nominated to win Upper Midwest Emmy awards this fall.

Up for nominating in the 1a Newscast Market 1-20 is KARE 11’s Sunrise Associate Producer, Gillian Key. Travis Kobs is nominated for his Light Series photography at WKBT. Ben Bicknese is up for two nominations: KAAL Evening Newscast Photographer and KAAL Photographer for The Kasson Cancers. And finally, Danette Child’s KTTC Evening Newscast Production is up for nomination.

To be nominated as an Emmy Award Winner, production work is submitted and judged on a point-based system, said nominee Danette Childs. Submissions with the most points are awarded a nomination spot.

Newscast Emmys, such as Child, Key and Bicknese’s nominations, are based on and competing against market size categories, whereas Kobs’ photography nomination is in competition with markets of all sizes.

Mass communication professor Robin O’Callaghan couldn’t be more proud of the graduates.

“I went online and I’m like… Wow, look at all of our graduates,” O’Callaghan said. “As I found the first one posted about Ben, I started to look for other WSU graduates. It’s just so great to see them nominated for one of the industry’s most prestigious honors.”

O’ Callaghan has watched them grow from when their journey at Winona State first began to now being nominees in one of the upper midwest’s greatest accomplishments.

Danette Childs, who initially wanted to major in meteorology, eventually combined both her interests and graduated with a broadcasting major and geoscience minor.

Childs, who did just about everything from producing to anchoring in News 24, the campus television station, took her involvement to new heights when she became the only student to bring the weather segment to action.

After graduating in 2008, Childs worked part-time at WKBT as a floor crew worker, and from there landed a job at KTTC as the 6-10 Evening Newscast Producer.

Reflecting back on her challenges and successes, Childs said her advice to current students is never to give up.

“I know it’s hard because you will get a lot of no’s, but you will get that one yes. And it usually turns out for the best,” Childs said.

“To watch them move from ‘I’m sort of confused,’ and ‘I’m not really sure what you’re talking about,’ to graduating, and landing a job right away… It’s incredible to watch,” O’Callaghan said.

Ben Bicknese also related to these challenges and accomplishments.

It took Bicknese until his second year of college to find out what he wanted to pursue, but he realized that even as a little kid he was interested in making videos.

“I would always take my aunt and uncle’s big video camera around the farm and make my own National Geographic videos,” Bicknese said.

After graduation, Bicknese too started an internship at a public radio station, KMSQ, in Austin, Minn., doing a little bit of everything: set design, writing scripts, editing and guest line-ups. Bicknese started four years ago at KAAL, and has been working in photography for three years.

The piece submitted for the nomination, Bicknese explained, was a touching series-story about children with cancer and their stories.

“It’s really amazing when you can tell stories like that and get recognition,” Bicknese said. “But it’s not about the award; it’s about when you help them out. It told their story.”