It’s not often that a college senior can add “Emmy winner” to their résumé before they earn their undergraduate degree. But that’s the case for communication studies majors Isabella McCullough ’26 and Braden Hamilton ’26.
Their documentary film Dr. Yemaja Jubilee Hardships & Triumphant Joy won a NATAS-NCCB Student Production Award in the 2025 nonfiction long-form documentary category at the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter Student Production Awards. They got the news earlier this month, just before they graduated a semester early from Longwood.
“We found out the week before finals, and we both were like, ‘We just won an Emmy and now we get to graduate,’” McCullough recalled with a laugh.
The documentary McCullough and Hamilton produced was their capstone project for their COMM 445 class on digital storytelling. Students in Dr. Ryan Stouffer’s class had to create a documentary telling a story that had a significant impact and was at least seven minutes long.
Jubilee is a life coach, poet, author, song writer and inspirational speaker who grew up in Charlotte County, Virginia, and attended segregated schools during the Jim Crow era. She wanted to attend Longwood, but as a Black woman she was denied admittance in 1964 on the basis of race. Later she graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
McCullough said she and Hamilton decided to focus the documentary on Jubilee’s academic journey.
We decided to tell [Dr. Jubilee's] story because somebody so determined to get a degree and take back that sense of power deserves to have their story told.
Isabella McCullough '26
“She talks a lot about scars and how they formed her,” McCullough said. “That is one of the deepest, most impactful parts of her life because she was told she was academically good enough, but because of her identity, she wasn’t allowed in. So we decided to tell that story because somebody so determined to get a degree and take back that sense of power deserves to have their story told.”
At a special ceremony during Commencement weekend in 2024, Longwood awarded honorary degrees to individuals whose lives were affected by the struggle for educational access— including original R.R. Moton High School strikers or plaintiffs, victims of the school lockout, and those denied admission to Longwood because of race. Jubilee was among the recipients.
Hamilton and McCullough, communication studies majors with a digital media concentration, said they enjoyed getting to know Jubilee and her colorful personality through producing the documentary.
“She was really gung-ho to get this documentary out there and share her story,” said Hamilton, who is from Lexington, Virginia. “Not only were we excited to get this done and see all of our thoughts and ideas come to fruition. But Yemaja was right there next to us every step of the way. It really made the two of us properly share her story and get it out there for more than just the Longwood community to see.”
Longwood has won four regional Emmys since 2020. Stouffer, associate professor of communication studies, said the success reflects the impact thoughtful storytelling can have.
Seeing multiple students earn this recognition for their documentaries is a powerful reminder of what’s possible when passion meets purpose.
Dr. Ryan Stouffer, associate professor of communication studies
“Seeing multiple students earn this recognition for their documentaries is a powerful reminder of what’s possible when passion meets purpose,” Stouffer said. “It speaks to the standards we set as a department and showcases our culture. Bella and Braden are just another example of the excellence we see in our students, their hard work, dedication and creativity is exemplary and they represent the very best of what the COMM department and Longwood strives to cultivate.”
Last year, Jacob Halloway ’24 won for his film documenting the story of Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, which was one of the cases that eventually became part of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Makayla Jennings ’22 won in 2022 for her documentary on Black American cowboys and Sam Chase ’21 won in 2021 for his piece on the first protest in Farmville following the death of George Floyd in 2020.
“We’re going to need a bigger trophy case,” joked Stouffer, when asked what it means to have back-to-back winners. In addition to the trophy presented to the university, this is the first year that the student winners will be able to purchase an award to display. Previously, the Emmy award only went to the college or university.
While McCullough, a Sacramento, California, native who came to Longwood to play goalie on the women’s lacrosse team, graduated in December, she’s not leaving Longwood. She is pursuing an MBA in marketing beginning next semester. She is also a sports information intern with Longwood Athletics and her career goal is to become a sports information director.
“I’ve done a lot at Longwood because I am very involved,” McCullough said. “But this is the one experience that I’m going to take with me for the rest of my life, and be proud that we were able to encapsulate a woman’s life and her legacy.”