Sophisticated and classic.

Open the magazine and, boom, you’re in a dramatic story.

Incredible storytelling.

Visually this magazine is a knock-out.

Even the class notes are interesting.

Those are some of the enthusiastic comments judges made in selecting Wake Forest Magazine as the Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year, which recognizes the best educational advancement magazine from a field of 11 finalists. Wake Forest University is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

In their submission, the magazine’s editors said, "Wake Forest Magazine’s mission is summed up by two words: connections and outcomes. Our objective is to tell the powerful stories of Wake Foresters who are doing good and doing well in the spirit of the University’s motto, Pro Humanitate.”

One of these stories followed an Ethiopian shepherd boy’s journey to becoming a Wake Forest student in the fall 2018 issue, which focused on the importance and growth of global education with Wake programs abroad, on campus, and in the curriculum. The story about Wubetu Shimelash led to discussion of plans for construction of a new school room by a literacy group in Ethiopia backed by a reader in Austin, Texas; a bookmobile in Ethiopia; and a shoe company in Ethiopia, backed by a Wake Forest grad.

The spring 2018 edition, titled “The Community Issue,” took on the logistical challenge of interviewing 44 alumni, faculty, staff, and students to talk about what makes community at Wake Forest—and getting them all together (plus a dog) in one photo conversing with one another. Other articles also focused on the meaning of community, from one on a predominantly black church and a predominantly white church coming together to heal racial divisions, to a story about a developer creating a “town of the future” in Florida.

For the judges, Wake Forest Magazine is "clearly a magazine to be reckoned with. It has a rich variety of stories, is professional grade throughout, captures the vibrancy of an ambitious research university page by page, and has imagery that takes us out into the world with the Wake Forest people it follows there."

One of the magazine’s 86,000 readers left this comment about the summer 2018 issue, “I just wanted to thank you for a wonderful morning of great reads and art in the WF Magazine…. This morning, I ignored the morning newspaper and settled in with my coffee and your publication for several hours—reading from the first article to the end very slowly from cover to cover. It was compelling, current, new."   

Wake Forest Magazine is the latest winner in 90 years of honoring the best in alumni magazines. The first awards were made by the American Alumni Council—a predecessor to CASE—in 1929. California Monthly—the predecessor publication to California, the alumni publication of the University of California, Berkeley—took home top honors for articles about alumni. Robert Sibley was the editor of the winning publication. He went on to serve as editor of the American Alumni Council's journal. In 1943, Sibley initiated the magazine of the year award, which now bears his name, and remains the highest award for excellence in the field.

Magazines that earn a Gold or Grand Gold Circle of Excellence Award in four categories (community college magazines, general interest magazines, independent school magazines, and special constituency magazines) are eligible for the award.

Last year’s winner was the HBS Bulletin of the Harvard Business School.

Learn more about the Sibley Magazine of the Year Award.