NWCC staff collect CPRAM awards
6-2-05
by Nancy Patterson

Members of Northwest Mississippi Community College's Public Relations staff returned from the annual College Public Relations conference in Biloxi April 23-24 with 10 awards including a first-place in the Institutional Magazine category for its Northwest Now alumni magazine.

Attending the two-day conference were Director Darrin Devault of Memphis, Assistant Director Nancy Patterson of Senatobia, and Public Relations Assistant Julie Bauer of Southaven.

Sharing the first-place award were Devault, Bauer and Director of Development Sybil Canon of Senatobia. "Nice style, strong continuity, good use of color, and quality copy," were the comments recorded by the competitions' judges.

All three staff members were recognized for a third place award for "Road to Success" in the Tabloid Publication category. Other awards included an honorable mention by Patterson for "Field of Dreams" in the feature story category.

Patterson and Devault were second place winners in the Admissions and Recruiting category for the college's Tech Prep magazine insert. The two received honorable mention for their work on a brochure for the college's Workforce Development Center in the Brochure category.

Bauer was a third-place winner for "Road to Success" in the Advertisement division. Patterson and alumnae and Tupelo artist Robbie P. Boyd took third place in the Single Piece of Artwork division for the cover of the college's cookbook, "Cooking Lessons." In that same category Northwest art major Lee Nelson of Independence took honorable mention recognition for his design that promoted the college's 2004 Homecoming.

Another student, James Sorey of Pearl, was the third-place photography recipient for "Signs of Summer," a photo series that promoted activities in the college's summer Kids' Kollege for 2004.

David Campbell, the college's webmaster, took honorable mention for his redesign of the college's Web site in that category.

Devault and Canon shared second-place honors in the Creative Partners category with University of Mississippi administrators Jeffrey Alford and Dr. Gloria Kellum. The team produced promotional materials for the partnership campaign for the 2+2 Scholarship Initiative at DeSoto Center.

Earlier this spring the Northwest public relations team received recognition of the annual PRism Awards, sponsored by the Public Relations Association of Mississippi. Devault received an Award of Excellence for his feature story on Mariglyn Meacham of Senatobia.

Patterson received a Certificate of Achievement for the "Field of Dreams" story on Northwest alumni serving on a Brazilian mission trip. Bauer, Devault and Canon collected a Certificate of Achievement for their work on Northwest Now, the college alumni magazine.