President, Creative Director, and…Awards Judge?

Published: January 14, 2021

by Justin Difazzio

We’re no strangers to community college media, having made award winning videos for Kishwaukee College and Lincoln Land Community College (LLCC) for many years. So the next step after making so many videos about the benefits of choosing a two-year school was a logical one.


A Request For Help

When Lynn Whalen, Chief Communications Officer for LLCC and the past president of the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR) reached out to our own boss, Brian Oster, with an opportunity, he was quick to answer her request that he judge several categories in the NCMPR Paragon Awards.

brian oster

From the mouth of the man himself: “We’ve been making videos and other media for LLCC for five years, have exhibited at NCMPR conferences, and have presented for them in the past, so of course, when Lynn asked me to serve as a judge for the prestigious NCMPR Paragon Awards, it was a no brainer.”

He was asked to judge content in three categories, including Poster Series, Quick-Turn Video, and Print Ad Series. “Always a support of community colleges myself, it is an honor to come alongside other fellow marketers and recognize their outstanding work at a national level. It was really a lot of fun, and there were so many great entries that it was hard to score them and choose a winner.”


The Whos and Whats

2020 Paragon Award winners will be presented at the virtual NCMPR national conference on March 16-18. NCMPR represents marketing and public relations professionals at community and technical colleges, and their membership accounts for more than 1,700 members across almost 650 colleges in the US and Canada.

The Paragon Awards are the only awards which recognize outstanding achievement in design and communication at two-year community and technical colleges. With winners from both large and small colleges, they reflect the best in representing the community college story through creativity, expertise, and originality.

And we’re all about that! Kudos to the winners, and to Brian for serving to give credit where it is due.