For 21 years, the Phoenix Challenge Foundation has been a premier organization supporting flexography and graphic arts in education and “building the workforce of tomorrow.” This year’s competitions for both high school and college programs showcased more young talent, more creativity and determination than ever. The Foundation has created this avenue for students to gain exposure in and to foster careers throughout the dynamic, ever-changing flexo industry.

This year’s two main competitions, the PCF College Competition and PCF High School Skills Competition took place in March and April.

PCF College Competition
The 11th PC College Competition concluded with eight schools traveling to St. Louis, MO, USA, where they enjoyed tours of Rotometrics and Mark Andy Inc. before demonstrating their talents during the live presentations detailing their “real life” small business client projects, which require flexo printed materials to support a set of specific objectives. After several months of client interaction, defining objectives and designing and delivering printing flexo materials, teams amazed judges with their capability, collaboration and final printed results.

The 2018 Winner’s in the top categories are:

• Overall Competition – Cal-Poly
• Research – University of Wisconsin – Stout
• Execution – Clemson University
• Concept – Waukesha County Technical College
• Graphics – Waukesha County Technical College

PCF High School Skills Competition
The 2018 PCF High School Skills competition was held in Charlotte, NC for the 21st time. Thirty-six students from across North America came together in two-person teams where they demonstrated their new flexo skills through a live, hands-on multi-faceted program covering flexo math, ink mixing/testing, prepress, plate mounting, printing, diecutting and more.

The two-day event also included a tour of Genpak. After the all the judging of hands-on skills and the tests were scored the top three teams placed as follows:

• 1st Asheville High School – Grayson Hackett and Travis Brown
• 2nd Asheville High School – Alex Abrams and Dorian Harmon
• 3rd Knox High School – Michael Poindexter and Kameron Howard

“The Phoenix Challenge Foundation has, for a long time now, been crucial to bringing viable students seeking careers to our industry,” says Bettylyn Krafft, chairwoman of the Phoenix Challenge Foundation. “We are so proud to see these students grow into true professionals across our world of flexography, in many capacities from operators to sales professionals to young executives. I have personally witnessed many students move into being our co-workers. The Phoenix Challenge is delivering and that is something to celebrate.”