St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s Office of Institutional Advancement, led by Vice President Carolyn Curry, has won two Gold awards in the 36th Annual Educational Advertising Awards, with one award for the Dedication of the Commemorative to Enslaved Peoples of Southern Maryland also selected as a Best of Show.
The November 2020 Dedication of the Commemorative to Enslaved People received a Gold award and was selected as a Best of Show in the special event materials category. According to the Educational Advertising Awards, “Each of these [Best of Show] entries exhibited the highest standards, creativity and professionalism. They captured the attention and admiration of our panel of judges.”
A second Gold award was awarded in the total fundraising/development campaign category for Giving Tuesday 2020, in which the College raised $287,937 from more than 2,000 donors. This makes 15 top national awards that the team has earned in the past two years.
In acknowledging the recent awards at the May Board of Trustees meeting, Institutional Advancement Committee Chair Gail Harmon said, “This type of third-party validation says that our College’s marketing and branding are on the right track.”
Institutional Advancement also recently won a Silver award in the CASE II District Awards in the COVID Response - Communications Pivot category for the entry COVID Response: The St. Mary's Way. The entry highlighted the key components of the College’s COVID communications response between March-August 2020 related to the safe reopening of the College. The team also earned a Gold award in the 2020 Collegiate Advertising Awards for the design of a giveaway apparel item for newly admitted students designed by alumna Keely Houk ’17.
The Educational Advertising Awards is the largest educational advertising awards competition in the country. This year, over 2,000 entries were received from over 1,000 colleges, universities and secondary schools from all 50 states and several foreign countries. Of those, only 14 institutions were recognized by the judges as a Best of Show winner, and only 313 received Gold awards.
Judges for the Educational Advertising Awards consisted of a national panel of higher education marketers, advertising creative directors, marketing and advertising professionals. The largest educational advertising awards competition in the country, the annual Educational Advertising Awards is sponsored by Higher Education Marketing Report.
