2024 College Competition Winners Announced

Published: May 06, 2024

The Phoenix Challenge Foundation Competes at the Flexo Xperience Center

The Phoenix Challenge Foundation, a premier supporter of building flexo in education and building the workforce of tomorrow, is honored and excited to announce the 2024 winners of the 17th Annual College Competition. Just finishing last week at the Flexo Xperience Center in Atlanta, Georgia, the program continues to inspire and build relationships between colleges and the flexo industry.

This year’s top winners are: 

• Overall Competition – CalPoly - San Luis Obispo, California

• Research, Graphics & Execution – RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) Rochester, New York

• Concept – Illinois State University – Normal, Illinois

Several teams from top universities in addition included Appalachian State University, Clemson University and Toronto Metro University. As with all past competitions, judges and attendees continue to be impressed by the talent the Phoenix Challenge Foundation competitions continue to provide the industry. 

Six top-tier universities came together to compete: Appalachian State University, CalPoly San Luis Obispo, Clemson, Illinois State University, Rochester Institute of Technology and Toronto Metro University.

This year’s competition took place with the generous hospitality of MacDermid’s Flexo Xperience Center in Atlanta, Georgia where the teams presented to a panel of industry judges representing converters and suppliers. In addition, a highly educational visit with Coca-Cola’s packaging professionals provided a glimpse of a day in the real life of managing packaging and print production for a global brand. A successful event for the 2024 Event.

The Phoenix Challenge Foundation continues its core mission of “Building Tomorrow’s Workforce.” This can only be achieved with community support across converters and suppliers alike; and who are always invited to support this ever-growing crucial endeavor of developing talent to support all aspects of the industry, especially on the press-room floor. 

The year’s College Event Sponsors included:

Anderson & Vreeland  - Harper Corporation - MacDermid Graphics Solutions -

JR Cole Industries Inc. - Tesa Tape - TLMI - PCMC - FLEXO Wash - Graymills -

ICPF - International Corrugated Packaging Foundation

All Printing Resources - SunChemical - Mark Andy

Regarding this year’s competition, Foundation Chairman Bettlyyn Krafft said, “I continue to be inspired, impressed and frankly just excited to see the number of participants. It shows that skilled trades are needed and there is growing interest in flexo, label and package printing. This is why I do this, to help and watch these students thrive!”

Visit www.phoenixchallenge.org or contact Bettylyn at 704-309-3748 for more details.