On Feb. 28, Nucleus Yearbook hosted a reception in honor of their 2018 yearbook being recognized at the 2019 Premier Print Awards on June 20, 2019. The Premier Print Awards is a prestigious international competition hosted by the Printing Industries of America in order to recognize exceptional print communications. This is one of the largest competitions within the graphic arts industry.  

“We are once again honored to be recognized by the Printing Industries of America for partnering with our customers to produce such inspiring yearbooks,” said Ann Carr, Chief Marketing Officer of Jostens, the yearbook publishing company for many universities nationwide including NJIT, in a news release to GlobeNewswire. “This recognition is not only a reflection of the creativity and craftsmanship found within these books, but more importantly of the collaboration between Jostens and our customers in celebrating the meaningful moments they capture.”  

In the same news release, Michael Makin, president and CEO of Printing Industries of America, remarked, “This year marks the 70th year of this annual and most prestigious international print competition. Over 2,200 entries were received this year, and the work of Jostens was chosen as that which exemplifies some of the highest standards in the printing industry.” 

Jostens received a total of 12 awards at the 2019 Premier Print Awards, with the Best of Category “BENNY” award bestowed upon The United States Naval Academy’s 2018 yearbook and Awards of Recognition going to Harvard University’s 2019 yearbook and The United States Military Academy’s 2018 yearbook. NJIT’s 2018 yearbook won a Certificate of Merit, alongside eight other yearbooks from educational institutes including Cornell University, Pennsylvania State University and Westlake High School. Of the list, NJIT is the only STEM school. 

At the reception, speakers included NJIT President Joel Bloom; Jostens Yearbook Publishing Representative Bonnie Blackman; Dean of Students and Campus Life Marybeth Boger; 2018 Nucleus Yearbook Managing Editor, 2019 Editor-in-Chief and NJIT Class of 2019 alumnus Jacob Ponulak; and current Nucleus Yearbook Editor-in-Chief and junior Computer Science major Stephanie Nieve-Silva.  

President Bloom commended members of the Nucleus Yearbook. “You do this while you do a lot of other things here, particularly as hardworking students in a very, very rigorous curriculum. So we thank you for your commitment, we thank you for your talent, we thank you for your hard work, and we particularly thank Stephanie and many of you for your leadership and proving that a polytechnic university is comprehensive too, along with the diversity we have here, along with all the other prizes this university has won.” 

“I want to congratulate Stephanie, I want to congratulate the Nucleus advisor, I want to thank our partners over at Jostens. I learned that Jostens has been in business longer than I’ve been here at NJIT—about a hundred and thirty years? So the founding of Jostens and the founding of NJIT are in close proximity of one another. So thank you for what you’ve done in working with us and helping us out, and congratulations,” continued Bloom.  

Jostens Yearbook Publishing Representative Bonnie Blackman and current Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Nieve-Silva presented Bloom with a framed cover of the 2019 yearbook, which depicts a blend of the historic Eberhardt Hall and the recently-built Wellness and Events Center to symbolize how the university has become one with its past and moving toward its new future. 

The 2018 Nucleus Editor-in-Chief and NJIT Class of 2018 alumna Renee Collins could not be at the ceremony, but she sent a letter that was read by Ponulak.  

“Each NJIT student has a wildly different college experience and we will never all know one another” Collins wrote, “But being here at NJIT together we are making small micro-impacts on each other’s lives. And those small impacts compound into the culture of our university and have the power to change our campus for the better. So we set out to make a yearbook that celebrated our differences but highlighted the ways in which we came together…. It’s a celebration of us sharing our lives at NJIT and how each moment shared, no matter how small, connected us all forever and enough to change the university. We never knew we would win a Premier Print award but we’re so grateful that our story was told, heard and honored by such a respected organization. I could not be more proud to be the Editor-in-Chief of the 2018 publication. And thank you to everybody for bringing the NJIT story to life.”  

Photos by Steven Aquino and Karel Rojas Requena from Nucleus Yearbook