Student Spotlight: Caroline Hull’s Lifeline
Augsburg MFA student Caroline Hull is being recognized on a national stage for her one-act play, Lifeline. Originally selected to advance through the , Caroline’s work has now achieved the highest honors at the national level.
We are thrilled to announce that Lifeline was recently named the national second-place winner of the prestigious John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play.
This national recognition from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) highlights the universal resonance of Caroline’s storytelling. While the official National Awards Ceremony will be held virtually on April 25, 2026, Caroline has also been invited to participate in exclusive professional development seminars and masterclasses with industry leaders during the week of April 21.
From Personal Reflection to National Stage
Encouraged by faculty and colleagues to submit her work, Caroline took the leap- and found not only recognition, but a broader platform for her voice. Receiving these awards affirmed something she already believed about storytelling: that if a piece of writing reaches even one person, it matters. For her, it’s more about what the play represents: a willingness to take creative risks, to write from lived experience, and to offer something deeply human to audiences who may need it.
Lifeline began quietly, as personal writing. Caroline first turned to the page as a way of coping, and over time those early journal entries grew into something larger—a script shaped by love, illness, friendship, and resilience.
“It developed and changed into a love letter,” she shared, “to the life I’m able to have, and the friends who love me through it.”
That transformation, from private reflection to shared story, is at the heart of Caroline’s work as a playwright. Lifeline is not only a piece of theater, but an act of openness: a reminder that art can hold both grief and joy at once, and that vulnerability can be its own form of strength.
The Power of Community
Presenting the play at the regional festival in Rochester, Minnesota, required stepping into that vulnerability in a new way- especially during a Minnesota winter, which offered a vastly different experience for this Florida resident who typically attends our summer residency in July!
Caroline performed in the staged reading herself, alongside Augsburg graduate Logan Rodgers and fellow MFA student Jeff Redman. This is a reflection of how the MFA program provides more than artistic development; it is also a foundation of writers and artists who show up fully for one another- offering feedback, partnership, reassurance, and even performance support.
“Augsburg has given me this unreal, incredible foundation of creatives and playwrights. “It has given me a family… It’s given me a home.”
Looking Ahead
At Augsburg, we are proud not only of Caroline’s achievement, but of the courage behind it- the choice to write honestly, to take risks, and to create work that expands the stories we tell. As she prepares to virtually showcase Lifeline to a national audience this April, her focus remains steadfast: to keep writing, one day at a time, pencil in hand.
Congratulations to Caroline Hull, and to the spirit of brave, meaningful storytelling that continues to thrive within Augsburg’s MFA community.