The Broadcast Education Association recently honored two SFSU students for their outstanding feature-length scripts. Gerald Okimoto, a graduate student in the Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts Department (BECA), won first place for his screenplay, "The Tulean Dispatch." Rick Linares, undergraduate radio and television major, tied for second place honors for his screenplay, "Folsom."

Okimmoto's "The Tulean Dispatch" follows the emotional healing of a Japanese American man still scarred 25 years after being sent to a World War II internment camp as a teenager. The story takes place in early 1969 when the man's sister and brother-in-law die from a severe automobile accident, leaving their teenage son in his care. In caring for his nephew, the man is forced to refocus his life, return to his ethnic community, and face the memories from his past.

Okimoto, who will receive his master's degree this May, developed his script in a television dramatic writing seminar.

Linares also developed his script "Folsom" in a course on television dramatic writing. The screenplay follows two brothers in their 20s and their struggles to change their drug-dealing ways. The title is a reference to both a street in San Francisco's Mission District, near where Linares grew up, and the Northern California prison.

Linares, who will complete his bachelor's degree in fall 2002, plans a career in audio production and screenwriting.