Alumnus Presents His Emmy to Communication Arts Department

Justin Cece ’99, producer/editor at NBC News, honored his former professors Bob Mann and John Yurko when he donated his Sports Emmy to the Communication Arts Department. Cece, who was visiting Mann’s senior media seminar class on Oct. 3, surprised the professor and his students when he presented the statue during the class.

“Justin shocked me,” said Mann. “I was doing a routine interview with him in which he was telling the students about his work experiences after Caldwell. He told me that he was donating his Emmy to the department as thanks for the foundation we had given him. I jumped up like a kid who had just won a prize.”

Yurko said he was thrilled that Cece had been honored with a third national Emmy Award, “certainly a remarkable achievement by any measure. It is a tribute to him, and he then honors us by donating the Emmy to the college.”

Cece shares the Sports Emmy with the entire NBC technical operations team, which won in the category of Outstanding Technical Team Studio for work done during the London Olympics.

The three-time Emmy winner spoke to Mann’s students about the changing television news business and the skills and talents employers are looking for in television today.

A Bloomfield, N.J., resident, Cece has worked on a number of programs including “Rock Center” with Brian Williams, “Dateline NBC,” “Today” and “NBC Nightly News” and has also worked for NBC Sports.

In 2010, he was one of a group editors to receive an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Editing, Quick Turnaround for “Inside the Obama White House.” In 2011, he won another Emmy as part of a team for his work on the “Dateline NBC” series “America Now: Friends and Neighbors,” which focused on rural Ohio families facing chronic poverty. The show won in the category of Best Continuing Coverage in a News Magazine.

Cece’s experience also includes working in Rome covering the beatification of Mother Teresa in 2003, the death of Pope John Paul II and the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI.

In March, Cece received the Excellence in Media Veritas Award from Caldwell University. The Veritas Award is the highest honor the college bestows on its alumni for professional excellence.