Lethbridge College’s Advancement team received two awards on Friday in Seattle at the CASE District VIII 2017 Communication Awards ceremony. The winning submissions appeared in two different issues of Wider Horizons, the college’s alumni and community magazine that is distributed to nearly 40,000 people three times each year, and included:
- A gold award in the Feature Writing category for Lisa Kozleski’s “Lost Boys, Found Men” cover story about the journey of John Manyok and Sam Mathon from fighting as child soldiers in the Sudan to walking across the convocation stage at Lethbridge College
- A silver award in the Photo Series category for Rod Leland’s “Whistling While He Works” photo essay featuring alumnus and long-time Facilities department employee Clarence Slomp
“Lethbridge College has a proud 60-year history and we are incredibly lucky to share its stories through our award-winning magazine,” says Gwen Wirth, Communications manager. “Through their skill and passion, our talented writers and photographers are able to bring those stories to life on the pages of Wider Horizons and serve as a key resource to connect our alumni and community members to what is happening on campus.”
Kozleski’s story appeared in the spring 2016 issue of Wider Horizons and told the story of two soon-to-be graduates who came to the college as mature students looking for post-secondary education to open doors to new opportunities, as so many students do. However, Manyok and Mathon’s experiences before coming to the college set them apart. They are some of the “Lost Boys of the Sudan,” a term used to describe the 26,000+ young boys who left or were taken from their homes in southern Sudan to train as soldiers in what would end up being a 22-year long civil war. The story, with photos by Gregory Thiessen, detailed their journey from the time they left their villages at the age of nine or 10 until they arrived at the convocation stage nearly three decades later.
Leland’s photos included the cover image of the fall 2016 issue of Wider Horizons and nearly a dozen other photos that accompanied the eight-page story. In a special issue devoted to faculty and staff members at the college, the cover story highlighted one of the college’s most beloved employees. Leland and writer Paul Kingsmith accompanied Slomp through an entire work day, from the first morning cup of coffee to the moment when he stepped in his truck to return home. A longer form photo essay was also produced for the web, and is available on Flickr.
These are the seventh and eighth awards the college has received from CASE VIII in the last dozen years, and the first gold and first silver awards. The college has previously won bronze awards for its website, for its viewbook and for Wider Horizons (three times for the magazine and once for photography).
The competition includes submissions of marketing and communications materials from colleges and universities of all sizes in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut as well as the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. Kozleski’s and Leland’s awards were given in “open” categories, which means these submissions were judged against colleges and universities of all sizes in the district, including the universities of Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary, Washington, Oregon and more.
To read the latest issue of Wider Horizons, pick up a copy in Centre Core on campus or check it out online.