Wake Forest wins national CASE awards

Wake Forest is raising the bar of creative excellence for colleges and universities around the world.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), one of the largest international associations of education institutions with more than 3,600 member colleges and universities, awarded Wake Forest’s Creative Communications team three gold medal awards during its 2014 Circle of Excellence awards program. Additionally, Wake Forest Magazine received a silver award for general interest magazines with a circulation of 75,000 or greater.

The international Circle of Excellence awards program recognizes outstanding work in advancement services, alumni relations, communications, fundraising and marketing as judged by peer professionals at schools, colleges and universities as well as by professionals from outside education.

This year, 629 institutions submitted more than 3,000 entries in 100 different categories.

Wake Forest’s Admissions Viewbook and Forestry 101, a mini-textbook containing everything incoming freshmen and their families need to know about orientation and life at Wake Forest, both received gold medal awards for the multi-page publication category.  The only other school to receive gold in the category was Marlboro College in Vermont. There were a total of 105 entries.

“From the beginning of both Forestry 101 and the Admissions viewbook, we tried to rethink what had been created traditionally both here and at other schools,” said Hayes Henderson, executive director of Wake Forest’s Creative Communications team.

Wake Forest University photographer Ken Bennett

Wake Forest University photographer Ken Bennett was named the 2014 Photographer of the Year. The award recognizes the work of a single staff or freelance photographer based on a portfolio of 10 to 15 representative photographs. Bennett was selected from a national pool of 35 applicants.

“Ken has the unique ability to skillfully capture the emotion of a moment, the personality of a subject, a moment in time, or a unique view of our campus environment– all with the vision and creativity of a category specialist,” Henderson said. “As a teammate, he brings fresh ideas to the table, is a dedicated thinking partner on our communications materials, a great collaborator, and just fun to work with.”