Communications Team Wins 6 Awards in 2 Contests 

April has been a good month for HIU's Communications team, which won four awards from the DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Awards and two from the Connecticut Press Club.

The annual DeRose-Hinkhouse awards go to members of the Religion Communicators Council who "demonstrate excellence in religious communications and public relations." They honor the late Victor DeRose and Paul M. Hinkhouse, both lithographers who were longtime members of the RCC.

Communications Coordinator Liz Ryan won the Blogs – Single Work category with her blog titled "The Importance of Interreligious Exposure: Blessing Someone's Religious Practice from a Place of Knowledge and Empathy."

"I'm delighted to get recognition for this blog based on a personal experience," Liz said. "With it, I wanted to add a grain of sand to raise awareness on the need to be close to those who are different from us."

Chief Creative Officer Steven Havira won in two design categories for our Connections 2022 magazine cover titled “The First Trailblazing Women of HIU”: Best in Class and Publication Design: Cover or Feature – Single Work.

"In working with Susan Schoenberger, Director of Communications, we wanted to dedicate an entire magazine to the historic trailblazing women of HIU. In 1889 we were the first seminary to admit women, which was incredibly progressive thinking for the time," Steven said. "My design was influenced by their diversity and dynamism. I wanted to create a narrative of the next generation looking on in admiration of these women while they looked upon her as a reflection of their own journeys framed in our history."

Our short film Spirit of the Stacks won an Award of Merit under the Video: Promotional/Informational – Single Work category. The film resulted from a team effort by Chief Creative Officer Steven Havira, Events Coordinator and Continuing and Professional Education Manager Joe Chung, and Communications Coordinator Liz Ryan.

At the Connecticut Press Club, the Spirit of the Stacks video won first place in the Video for Web - Special Interest Video category. Steven Havira also won a second place award in the Graphics category for the cover of Connections magazine.  

Earlier this year, the Spirit of the Stacks video won a bronze award in the 38th Annual Educational Advertising Awards under the category of Special Video. 

Congratulations, communications team!