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| RACHEAL ALVSTAD / Scroll |
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Ever notice the students handing out those free yearbook DVDs in the Manwaring Center around the end of April?
Something students may not realize about the unsuspecting free tokens of their college lives is that Rixida, BYU-Idaho’s digital yearbook, is an internationally-award winning project.
Last year, our very own staff of IT, graphic design and communication majors pulled together to win “First Place for a Group Project” from the Broadcast Educators Association.
The judges at the conference were amazed with “A Viking’s Treasure, Rixida 2004”
“People at the conference kept asking how they got their students to do it,” said managing editor for Rixida Lydia Labrum, a senior from St. George, Utah.
However they did it, they’ll do it again as the yearbook continues to progress.“I think we keep improving each year — in essence, we keep raising the standard on ourselves,” Labrum said. “I think we have a great chance at winning another award.”
The Rixida class meets in what they call an “oversized closet” in the MC — a small, hidden room with late-model computers and a couch. But even without the newest technology, the staff still produces an award winning yearbook.
“We are also up against multi-media colleges in this competition. I think that speaks volumes for how good our program is here,” Labrum said. “We can take ‘ordinary’ communication students, most of who do not have any multi-media experience, and successfully compete against those students who are going to special multi-media schools.”
“Rixida has a proud heritage,” said Rixida adviser, Lane Williams, who noted that the yearbook can trace its roots back to the days when Ricks students were producing a monthly magazine known as the Student Rays. That was at the turn of the last century.
Then in 1999, the Communications Department decided to make the yearbook digital, as the cost of producing hardback books for the lessening demand outweighed the benefits.
Now, instead of creating an expensive yearbook only a percentage of students will buy, enough DVDs are made for each student to have one for free.
Rixida also accepts original student creative work.
Another section of Rixida is the collection of missionary stories. Part of BYU-Idaho culture includes the returned missionary, and Rixida captures that by including submissions of stories from RMs about their missions.
If students would like to submit creative material to Rixida they can e-mail submissions to rixida@byui.edu, or hard copies can be submitted to MC 376 on Tuesday or Thursday from 3 to 4 p.m. The deadline for submissions is Nov. 22.
