Township native Ava Scott and her classmates at Montclair State University were nominated for their project, “FOCUS: Our Mental Health,” in the Television Academy Foundation’s 45th College Television Awards.
The annual awards recognize and reward excellence in student-produced programs from colleges nationwide. Winners in the competition were announced by celebrities at the red carpet awards ceremony on March 28 at the Television Academy in North Hollywood.
Ahead of the awards, Scott, a senior majoring in journalism and digital media, discussed her work as a director, producer and writer on the project, which premiered on April 23, 2025 on Montclair State’s official streaming platform, Hawk Plus.
“FOCUS: Our Mental Health,” a 30-minute special from a Montclair team, explores practical approaches to mental wellness, including music, physical activity and mindful eating. The project focused on how Gen Z is tackling mental- health wellness on campus and involved 17 students, including Scott.
“For me, one of the most surprising things was just learning about different ways that people can cope with mental health,” Scott explained. “… I think a lot of times we think of the generic. Going to a traditional therapist talking about our feelings, or journaling or talking to a loved one.
“You don’t really think about some of the (outside-the-box therapies).”
One of them depicted in the special is on yoga, one on nutrition and another on art therapy. The episode also highlights campus resources for students needing support.
“It was just a learning experience overall,” Scott recalled. “How we can really cope, how we can see things differently versus what we were always told (on how to cope).”
Along with helping direct and produce, Scott helped put together the package on art therapy, though she admitted she wasn’t familiar with the topic before the project.
“As I started doing more research,” she said, “I really wanted to keep it local and find people in the Montclair area.”
Scott found a professor who is also an art therapist.
“From that experience alone, it opened up my mind to a different world,” Scott recounted. “Art is art. Who would have thought art could (play a part) in helping someone cope with their mental health?”
Scott even took a different approach to putting the package together.
“I didn’t just want to sit down and interview (the art therapist),” she noted. “I put myself in that experience. I did the art with her. I said, ‘I want you to put me in that experience and I want you to kind of guide me like you would a client.’ And we just started doodling.
“I was talking to her as I was doing it,” Scott added. “The setting was in this Zen Den, which they have at our school for students to use to get into a calm, relaxing state.”
And being “in that environment and doing the art with her,” she continued, “I learned so much about myself and expressing myself and how I felt about the day. It was really a neat experience putting myself in the art.”
Scott is proud of how her team addresses mental health to appeal to Gen Z with visuals and creative use of Canva for graphics. As part of their special, they put a whiteboard up in different locations on campus, including outside the student center.
“We cut out letters and made them huge and printed out a bunch of them and stuck them on a whiteboard,” Scott said.
The letters formed different questions, including “What’s been weighing on your mind?” Students could use a sticky note and write their answer, then read it in front of the camera and talk about what was weighing on their minds.
The annual College Television Awards are open to undergrad and graduate students. Emulating the Emmys, the entries are judged by organization members. Criteria reflect industry standards of excellence, imagination and innovation. Nominees were selected from more than 185 entries nationwide by Television Academy members.
Nominees also participate in two days of profession-development events with media and industry leaders and a special screening of their projects for Television Academy members prior to the awards show.
Scott, a 2022 graduation of Washington Township High School, is weighing her options after graduation in May.
“I hope to land a job in the television market,” she allowed. “My dream is to work in entertainment.”
Scott is currently an intern on NBC’s “Today” show.
“I’m curious to see what the next chapter of Ava is like,” she said.
