For the second year in a row, Lethbridge College’s magazine has been named the best community college magazine in North America. And for the first time it has been awarded a Grand Gold – one of the highest honours bestowed by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
The award is just one of several ways members of Lethbridge College’s Communications, Marketing and Alumni Engagement teams have been recognized in a variety of different ways in their industries in recent months. These team members are living illustrations of a college goal to develop staff members to align their strengths, passions, purpose, skills and capabilities to meet the needs of a shifting and changing educational landscape.
“I am incredibly proud of our team members whose commitment to collaboration and excellence has been recognized by so many prestigious professional and industry groups,” says Sandra Dufresne, executive director of Advancement at the college and the executive editor of the magazine.
“We are a small but mighty group who are consistently punching above our weight,” she adds. “Lethbridge College has incredible stories to tell – whether through captivating storytelling in Wider Horizons, memorable marketing campaigns sharing our powerful new brand or celebrating at events with our community – and we are proud of all of the talented people telling them.”
The awards and recognition include:
CASE Circle of Excellence
On Wednesday, Wider Horizons received the highest award – a Grand Gold – for the spring and fall 2018 issues in the community college magazine category in in the CASE Circle of Excellence awards competition that draws nominations from post-secondary institutions around the world. This is the fifth time in the last six years that the magazine has received an award in this competition, and the first time it has received the Grand Gold award, indicating it was the best in the category.
In addition, Wider Horizons was named a finalist for the Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year award – the most prestigious award given to recognize excellence in the field of post-secondary alumni magazines.
“Although not selected as the winner this year, you and your colleagues at Lethbridge are indeed in rare company,” wrote CASE President and CEO Sue Cunningham. “Yours was one of only 11 finalists selected from 180 magazines eligible for consideration for the Sibley Award. This is indeed a distinction worth noting and celebrating.”
Wider Horizons is edited by Lisa Kozleski and designed by Dana Woodward, and includes contributions from members of the marketing, alumni, development and communications teams at the college, as well as local freelance writers and photographers.
National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR)
In late March, Lethbridge College received five Paragon awards from the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations, an industry group the supports and advances the works of community colleges in North America. They included:
- Silver award in the Special Event category – for Coulee Fest 2018, recognizing the work of the college’s Marketing, Alumni and Communications teams
- Silver award in the Print Ad-Series category – for the Be Ready ad campaign in the fall of 2018, created by the college’s Marketing team
- Silver award in the Magazine category for the Fall 2018 issue of Wider Horizons
- Bronze award in the Magazine category for the Spring 2018 issue of Wider Horizons
- Bronze award in the Excellence in Writing – Short Form for “The Last Word,” a special feature in Wider Horizons written by Lisa Kozleski and illustrated by Eric Dyck.
Lethbridge College received the most awards among Canadian colleges, and was one of just three institutions to receive five awards. NCMPR represents more than 1,7000 marketing and public relations professionals from nearly 650 colleges across the U.S. and Canada.
Alberta Magazine Publications Association (AMPA)
This association, a non-profit industry association that promotes, supports and advocates on behalf of the Alberta magazine publishing industry, announced its annual awards at a gala in Calgary on April 4. The finalists from Lethbridge College were:
- “Time of His Life,” written by Lisa Kozleski, a finalist in the Alberta Story category. This story appeared in the spring 2018 issue of Wider Horizons.
- “Time,” with stories by Lisa Kozleski and designed by Dana Woodward, as a finalist in the Editorial Package category, also from the spring 2018 issue of Wider Horizons.
Some of the other finalists in these categories were Alberta Views, Avenue Edmonton, Western Living and WestJet Magazine.
“These finalists and winners represent the best of more than 200 nominees, whose work started at excellent and rose from there,” said AMPA executive director Suzanne Trudel.
LISTEN: Lisa Kozleski, senior writer and editor, discusses the success of Wider Horizons magazine: