Where the world began: A view of the mountain near the Saint Mary’s campus. On current maps it is Mt. Diablo, but to the Ohlone peoples it is Tuyshtak, or “dawn of time.” / Photo from video by Francis Tatem
Award-Winning Work: Here’s the Latest from Saint Mary’s to Earn Recognition as Among the Best in the West
The Saint Mary’s Land Acknowledgement video and SMC Professor Tom Poundstone’s “Dispatch from Rome” earn accolades from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
Saint Mary’s College of California has earned recognition from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s Region VII for a video of the College’s Land Acknowledgement—and for a dispatch from Rome by Professor of Theology and Religious Studies Tom Poundstone, chronicling the Papal Conclave and the selection of Pope Leo XIV. Both the video and the reportage from Rome were honored as among the best work in the west. The awards were judged by peers in higher education and were announced earlier this month.
For the competition, awards were submitted from schools throughout California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. As CASE notes, this large geographic area, comprising the organization's District VII, includes every size and type of institution.
This Place We Call Home
The Saint Mary’s Land Acknowledgment video speaks in images and words to the place that the College calls home—in recognizing the people whose historical lands it was long before Europeans set foot in California. “As the community of Saint Mary's College of California, we acknowledge we are gathered on the ethnohistoric tribal territory of the intermarried Saclan/Jalquin (hal-keen)/Huchiun (hoo-choon)/ ancestral Muwekma Bay Miwok and Ohlone Territory,” it begins.
The video was shot and edited by Francis Tatem, who has previously earned awards for his work photographing and producing videos and other content for Saint Mary’s, and it was produced by SMC’s Office of Marketing and Communications. Amaya Simoni Walters ’24, who served as President of the Native American and Indigenous Student Association (NAISA) at Saint Mary’s, narrates the video. The text for the acknowledgment was developed in connection with representatives of local tribes, and Walters also worked with Terri Jett of SMC’s Office of Inclusion and Belonging to shape the official text.
The Land Acknowledgment received recognition in the short video category. Other winners in the category include University of Southern California, Arizona State University, and University of San Diego.
A Dispatch from Rome
“A Dispatch from Rome: SMC’s Tom Poundstone on the Culmination of a Conclave and the Selection of Pope Leo XIV” earned recognition for news writing. Poundstone was in Rome for the papal conclave in May 2025, and he brought to bear both first-person observation and decades of scholarship to illuminate the experience for readers. In social media posts and stories for the SMC NewsCenter, he captured the texture, significance, and emotional charge of the experience.
Other universities winning in the writing category include Stanford, Caltech, and UCSF, the medical university in the University of California system.
Poundstone’s work was also honored last year in Bay Area Journalism Awards with first place in the blog and commentary category, competing against submissions from other colleges and universities. Those awards are presented by the San Francisco Press Club.
Deep Connections
“It’s rewarding to see this particular work recognized,” said Steven Boyd Saum, who serves as Executive Director of Strategic Communications in the Office of Marketing and Communications. “The video is grounded in a deep sense of the beauty and history of this place. And it came to be in part because of work that Associate Editor Hayden Royster was doing telling the story of efforts to create a land acknowledgement. Tom Poundstone’s heartfelt and thoughtful dispatch from Rome speaks to the ideas and ideals that animate Saint Mary’s—and connect it in very real ways to the wider world.”
This is the second year in a row that Saint Mary’s has earned recognition from CASE for outstanding work in the region. In 2025, CASE Region VII honored two series about the SMC Community—”In Their Own Words” and “Making Family History,” the latter of which highlights first-generation college students.
Silvers for Photography
In other recent accolades this year, SMC earned silver awards in photography in the Collegiate Advertising Awards competition. “Gael Force in the House—Saint Mary’s vs. Gonzaga” by Francis Tatem captured the energy and excitement of student fans in the big Men’s Basketball showdown of the season.
“Showdown in the Desert: The Gaels’ Paulius Murauskas Takes on His Former Teammates in Tucson,” by freelance photographer Katrina Isabel, captured the Men’s Basketball player mid-action on the court.
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