Contigo follows Jade, a young woman who returns to the site of a secret experiment in Venezuela to uncover the truth about what was done to her, and to confront the man responsible. Perez, who directed and co-wrote the film, describes it as one of the first action films produced at ������Ƶ, a distinction he takes pride in.

“Contigo was a very ambitious film with a lot of moving parts, but also an incredibly fulfilling experience,” said Perez. “It was special to make one of the first action films at Ringling. This film took so much energy and commitment from everyone involved, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the cast and crew who helped bring it to life.”

A hallmark of the production was its collaboration with industry stunt professionals. Stunt actors Jewelianna Ramos-Ortiz and Justin Ortiz, who also served as stunt coordinator, brought a level of action design rarely seen in student filmmaking. “Collaborating with industry stunt actors like Jewelianna Ramos-Ortiz and Justin Ortiz really elevated the film, allowing us to implement quality action design while still staying true to the story,” Perez added.

The film features a cast that includes Ramos-Ortiz as lead character Jade, Yamil Piedra as Miguel Torres, and Alex Mancillas and Haley Glass in supporting roles. The crew was composed largely of fellow Ringling students, with co-writer and director of photography Tan Kitapli, producers Michaela Cowan and Hayley Kirk, and composer Sergio De Miguel among the collaborators who helped shape the film’s final form.

Now in its 31st year, the Palm Beaches Student Showcase of Films is Florida’s largest student film competition, drawing more than 600 submissions in 2026. The program, which has awarded over $4.5 million in prizes and scholarships since its founding in 1995, is open free of charge to Florida high school and college students.

Perez expressed gratitude for the recognition. “I’m grateful to the Palm Beach Student Showcase for this recognition and for giving student filmmakers a platform to share their films and celebrate their hard work and talent.”

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Dillman’s career traces an arc that began at ������Ƶ, where he studied before embarking on a decades-long journey through global advertising and film industries. After rising through Tampa Bay agencies as Art Director and Associate Creative Director, he was recruited to The Leo Burnett Company in Chicago, where he worked on major accounts including Oldsmobile, Tropicana, and Philip Morris.

From 1987 to 1991, Dillman led creative teams across Frankfurt, London, Paris, and Tokyo as part of Burnett’s International Task Force, overseeing cultural adaptations of campaigns and producing work on location in Morocco, Algeria, and Los Angeles.

In 1991, Dillman transitioned to commercial film directing, ultimately earning an Emmy Award for Commercial of the Year in 1999. In 2005, he joined the prestigious roster at MJZ Film Productions in Los Angeles. He co-founded Confiscated Film with his wife in 1993, producing award-winning documentary work, including Getting to The Nutcracker (2014), which earned a Grand Jury Prize and two Best Documentary Feature awards. His most recent project, Black on the Bike, a documentary about African American cyclists, featuring USA Cycling Olympians and Tour de France stage winner Biniam Girmay, is currently in post-production.

Dillman was appointed to Ringling’s Board of Trustees in 2021.

The Spring 2026 Commencement Ceremony will be held on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at Robarts Arena. 

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Among the lineup of authors, editors, and industry experts were several familiar faces from ������Ƶ’s Creative Writing faculty and alumni community. Creative Writing faculty members Glenn Schudel, Sylvia Whitman, Esty Loveing-Downes, and Creative Writing Interim Department Head Dr. Ryan Van Cleave also contributed to panel discussions. 

Schudel presented Which Path Is Right for You? Big Publisher, Indie Press, or DIY? and co-led the interactive workshop First Pages That Stick: Hooking Readers from Line One, where participants read opening pages aloud and offered supportive, constructive feedback. He also joined the lively Pitch, Please! speed-pitching event for aspiring authors.

Whitman’s session, Voice, Vision & Vibe: Finding the Heart of Your Project, encouraged participants to reconnect with the emotional core of their work. She was also part of the Pitch, Please! speed-pitching.

The day also featured industry consultations through Ask an Editor/Agent, where writers could get real-time feedback on their pitches and publishing questions. Among the professionals fielding those questions was literary agent, Ringling alum, and adjunct faculty member Esty Loveing-Downes, who shared insider insights on navigating the industry.

Interim Department Head for Creative Writing Dr. Ryan Van Cleave also consulted at the Ask an Editor/Agent event. Additionally, he contributed to the Beyond the Book: Getting Paid to Write—Magazines, Freelance Markets, and More panel, helping participants learn to identify the right markets, craft effective pitches, and get their work published and paid for.

Attendance exceeded expectations, with more than 90 participants attending the morning panel alone. “It was out-the-door popular,” said Van Cleave. 

Film grad Patricia Pete, who now works within the Sarasota County Library system and is publishing her own books, also served as a panel moderator.

The Off the Page Literary Celebration continues throughout November, featuring author talks, workshops, and the keynote appearance of bestselling author Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club, The Backyard Bird Chronicles). Learn more and see the full schedule for on the Sarasota County Libraries website.

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The unveiling was celebrated with a public ceremony, led by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, with Knight on hand to speak about her work. The event also featured the unveiling of a statue commemorating Helen Keller. Together, Keller and Parks are the first women to be honored so prominently on the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol.

Knight, who is originally from Atlanta, graduated from ������Ƶ in 1978 and then continued her creative development in Pietrasanta, Tuscany. Her career has since included more than 50 public commissions. For the Rose Parks project, she was selected from 15 artists nationwide who submitted proposals in 2022.

Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks first gained national notoriety on December 5, 1955, when she refused to move from her seat near the front of a segregated Montgomery public bus. The incident led to a boycott of the bus system and is considered a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement.

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After the internship, Bennett granted Callins permission to use his music in his Ringling Thesis Film, Contagious Swagger. That collaboration would become a pivotal moment for Callins, leading to a full-time position on Bennett’s team after graduation. As a content creator, he began developing new concepts for music videos, skits, and promotional materials. Efforts that not only elevated Bennett’s projects but also deepened Callins’s ties with the Bennett family.

The Ringling grad took his work with Chance the Rapper a few steps further, joining his creative team as a content creator. Callins now travels across the country capturing behind-the-scenes footage, music videos, and tour content at major venues and events—including Chicago’s music festival Lollapalooza.

“Every day there’s something new to work on when you’re working with a celebrity like Chance,” Callins said.

As Callins explained, both Taylor and Chance are independent artists, which allows their team the freedom to stay authentic and innovative without the pressures or constraints of a major record label.

Callins’s first official assignment for Chance was filming his July 2025 performance at a Chicago Fire soccer game, followed by the rapper’s surprise set at Lollapalooza.

Since joining the team, Callins continues to push himself creatively. “Honestly, I was comfortable just being a behind-the-scenes videographer and editor,” he admitted. “When the RIDE music video was being created, they asked if I could operate a camera, which I had little to no experience with. I wanted to say no. I didn’t think I was ready. But I trusted myself and the team, strapped myself in the seat, and made the magic work.”

Chance plans to release several new music videos this year, including one filmed by Callins during the And We Back Tour this fall. For that project, Callins will be credited as camera operator, editor, and producer—a full-circle achievement for the Ringling Film graduate.

“It’s not always about the equipment you’re shooting with,” he said. “It’s about the story you tell.”

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In her current role, Nicolaus designs educational exhibits in collaboration with curators, educators, and multidisciplinary teams from museums and traveling exhibits throughout the country.

Museum EXP’s clients and projects include the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum in Kansas, the St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital Exhibition at the Glazer Children’s Museum, The Dig dinosaur experience at the Philip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Miami, and the traveling Crayola IDEAworks: The Creativity Exhibition.

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Currently serving as an Illustration and Design Intern on the Orion Communications team, Roper is helping shape how the public sees and understands the future of human space exploration. As part of the NASA team supporting the Artemis mission, they have been hard at work designing two posters that will be released to the public in the coming months. These visuals aim to educate and excite audiences about Artemis—NASA’s ambitious effort to return humankind to the Moon.

“My favorite thing about working for NASA is the community,” Roper shared. “Everyone here is so passionate about being part of a team that helps make human spaceflight possible.”

This opportunity builds upon their previous work in the field of science communication. Last summer, Roper interned at Quanta Magazine, a publication known for making cutting-edge scientific research accessible to a broad audience.

Science is a dominant theme in much of Roper’s work. They are especially passionate about entomology, the study of insects, which is visible in their bug-centric pitch for the Senior Thesis Exhibition poster. Their thesis project, Presently Paleo, explored how extinct flora and fauna might interact with the modern world if they were brought back to life.

 “I loved having the opportunity to combine my research of the prehistoric era with my personal style to create a thesis that felt wholly my own,” Roper shared. “The work I had done on the project allowed me to better articulate why I was interested in working in science communications.” 

Even while working at NASA, they’ve kept up with their love of bugs. They set up a beetle enclosure, which houses a metallic stag beetle named Quark, named after the Deep Space Nine character, whom they love dearly. 

All opinions here are Roper’s own, and they do not speak on behalf of or as a representation of NASA. Learn more about the progress for the Artemis mission on !

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While Kambara is quick to say that she’s not an artist herself, she has built a career around facilitating creative people. “I always wanted to support artists,” she said on Rising Together. “I just needed to be around creativity all the time.”

And for her job, “Creativity ends up being how you manage projects and how you manage others and how you’re able to support a team to take care of the vision.” That type of organizational thinking is exactly what’s needed when assembling a portfolio.

For prospective students, portfolios are a way to clearly demonstrate artistic capabilities like perspective, depth, dimension, and even color theory. The work itself should get all the focus, argued Kambara. Any unnecessary explanations or muddled captions will detract from your perceived skill level.

That’s why the veteran producer and production coordinator recommends that students start early, building their portfolio a little at a time so that the end result is clear and organized rather than rushed and jumbled.

“A nice thing about working on it over time is you can step back and see what you may want to edit before you submit it,” said Kambara. “If you procrastinate, it gives less opportunity for editing and getting feedback from others.”

That being said, you’re not trying to turn the portfolio into a work of art in and of itself. The point of the portfolio is to let your actual artwork speak for itself, and the best way to do that is to put it out there and then get out of the way. The presentation shouldn’t overshadow the artwork by being overly showy or complex.

“Your portfolio work will speak for your style and voice—let your work shine and show who you are,” said Kambara. “Lay out an organized presentation of your work and use a uniform font for the text.”

“A non-cohesive presentation is a common mistake,” she added. “When portfolios are not presented in a cohesive way, it can distract the reviewer from intently looking at your work.”

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During the Spring 2025 semester, Goodman returned to ������Ƶ for a solo exhibition of technicolor paintings with layered vignettes featuring the who’s who of animation history. The playful stroll down memory lane of an exhibition brings together pop-culture icons from different eras, genres, media, and even brands in dizzying scenes of nostalgia and pleasure.

“Returning to Ringling for a solo exhibition was a full-circle moment for me,”  Goodman shared. “It was deeply meaningful to present a complete body of work in the same place where my artistic journey began.”

Beyond the gallery walls, his time on campus was marked by hands-on involvement with students—spending a month working alongside emerging artists, exchanging ideas, and offering insight into life as a working creative. “Their curiosity and energy made the time truly special,” he reflected. To close out his visit, Goodman also served as a judge for Best of Ringling.

Now based in Chicago, Goodman is building an art practice rooted in place, culture, and collaboration. His reach spans some of the city’s most beloved institutions and brands.

In 2024, he designed a merchandise line for the Chicago Bulls. Beginning with the team’s Artist Hat Series, Goodman designed a custom hat distributed to the first 5,000 fans at a game. That partnership grew to include limited-edition fine art prints, pins, pennants, sticker sheets, and even ceramic basketball piggy banks.

Goodman also worked with the iconic West Loop sandwich shop and grocer, J.P. Graziano, on limited-edition holiday merchandise and special design collaborations in 2024.

Through a partnership with The Simple Good, he also contributed to a Chicago Public Schools coloring book. “This project is especially meaningful because every student receives a copy, giving them a creative outlet and a place to express themselves at the start of their artistic journey,” he shared.

Whether mentoring Ringling students, designing for organizations of all sizes, or making art accessible to Chicago youth, Goodman uses his practice to serve his community and create spaces for dialogue, participation, and connection.

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