A team of Cal Poly Graphic Communication students took first place in the 2012 Phoenix Challenge College competition in San Antonio, Texas.

The Cal Poly students competed against an international field of colleges and universities including Appalachian State University, Clemson University, Dunwoody College of Technology, Eastern Kentucky University, Ryerson University, the University of Western Michigan, and Waukesha County Technical College.

Cal Poly team members Audrey Van Camp, Chris Hernandez, Kendra Jaqua, Eli McNutt, and Kaela Soohoo took first place for its packaging redesign of Cal Poly Chocolates.

The students spent a year performing market research, designing, preparing prepress electronic files, and printing the packaging under the mentorship Professor Malcolm Keif. The students then presented and described their project to the Phoenix Challenge judges. The students redesigned nine Cal Poly Chocolates’ packages, although only four were required for the competition.

“Our students learned how to employ the skills they acquired at Cal Poly in a real life project and use team-presentation and reporting skills to deliver the results in a professional manner,” Keif said.

Harvey Levenson, head of Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication Department, said the projects that the students prepare epitomize Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing educational process.

“Students typically do very well in this annual competition,” Levenson said. “Their projects often meet a standard of look and quality typically demanded by industry.”

The competition is sponsored by the Phoenix Challenge Foundation, an organization of industry professionals dedicated to encouraging today's youth to explore career opportunities available to them through the flexographic printing industry.  Every year colleges compete to design, prepare files, and print a “real life” package to be judged at the annual Flexographic Technical Association Forum. This forum is the largest industry professional association and provides students the opportunity to test the skills they have learned, compete with other colleges that have graphic communication programs, and network and interact with industry professionals from around the globe. In addition the competition enhances awareness of the flexographic and packaging industry.