CSULB student wins national television writing contest

A Cal State Long Beach student who wrote her way to first place in a national television writing contest has a career goal of writing for a children's TV show, she said Tuesday.

"I want to write for Jim Henson's company," said Carly Furry, a sophomore majoring in English.

Furry took first place May 1 in the college undergraduate division for Zero Population Growth's pop TV writing contest on urban sprawl. She beat out students from various colleges, including UCLA.

"I thought it was pretty cool that I beat UCLA in the writing contest," Furry said.

Pamela Wasserman, the director of education for the population growth group, said Furry "beat 16,000 people from around the country and received an award of $1,000 for first place."

The purpose of the contest was to write a plot using treatment form for a current television show episode, according to press information from the growth group. A treatment is a script written in paragraph form.

Zero Population Growth, the Washington, D.C., nonprofit environmental organization that founded the contest, is "working to educate people about the impact of rapid population growth," a press release reported.

Furry said she found out about the contest while surfing the Web "midway through January." The entry was due by Feb. 15.

She said her past experience helped her win the contest.

"I have a lot of environmental experience -- I used to work at a zoo," Furry said.

Teacher Dianne Vipond praised Furry.

"She's a good student," said Vipond, her English 375 professor. "I'm not surprised. She has talent."

Vipond said she asked her classmates to write a piece reflecting their individual ethnic history.

"She wrote a short story and it was totally engrossing," she said.

Furry said she plans to use the prize money "to get my own apartment and move out of the dorms."

Furry wrote a treatment for "Bear In the Big Blue House," a TV show on the Disney Channel.

"We were impressed the way she took a complex issue and made it understandable for children," Wasserman said of Furry's treatment.

The contest was organized to get children to think about issues while they are young, Wasserman said.

The judges included Hollywood hot shots such as actor Chevy Chase; Joe Menosky, executive producer for "Star Trek Voyager"; and writers from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."