Charlotte, North Carolina, May 16, 2016—Global anilox roll supplier Harper Corporation of America congratulates TrishaLee Bull and Colin Schleicher, students of Waukesha County Technical School inPewaukee, WI, for being the 2016 Phoenix Challenge High School Competition first place champions. This is the second year in a row that WCTC has won first place. Harper was a purple sponsor for the 19^thAnnual Phoenix Challenge High School Skills Competition held on April 8 at the CCPP Harper Campus in Charlotte, NC, and has been an active supporter every year since the competition’s inception.

The Phoenix Challenge Foundation (PCF) encourages flexographic education to expose students to the flexographic industry as potential careers and gives leaders in the field the opportunity to support their advancement. The PCF conducts two yearly flexographic-related competitions: one for colleges and universities, and the other for high schools and vocational schools in the United States and Canada. The HS competition is a team-based skills competition that tests both knowledge and hands-on abilities across five areas. Each team takes the FTA level 1 operators certification and a printing mathematics test followed by exhibiting skills in prepress, plate making, and a 90-minute two-color die cut press run.

Nearly 60 students and educators traveled to Charlotte for the competition. Their skills were judged by a panel of industry professionals and educators including Lee Kluttz, Harper President, and Mark Jacques, Vice President of Manufacturing at Harper. Tony Donato, Product Development Engineer at Harper and Board Member for the Phoenix Challenge Foundation, presented the Diann Teague Award to Waukesha’s Flexo instructor Dina Vees for the excellent training of her winning students. 

Travel, accommodations, materials, scholarships, and more were all funded by the Phoenix Challenge Foundation through sponsorships from companies like Harper. Harper is proud to support the future of the flexographic industry and enable students to pursue these types of careers. 

For more information, please contact Jazmin Siancas at 704-588-3371, ext. 4292, or [email protected].