News Article

One-of-a-kind publication again recognized


10/21/2010 2:59:52 PM


College of the North Atlantic-Qatar (CNA-Q) has been recognized by the APEX Awards for Publication Excellence.

Having recently garnered attention from several international associations for its publication From Acacia to Ziziphus: Arabian Plants to Nourish the Body and Earth, College of the North Atlantic’s (CNA) Middle East campus has been recognized yet again, with the APEX Award of Excellence for One-of-a-Kind Green Publication.

The APEX Awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence. They recognize exceptional work in 127 individual categories; this year they had more than 3,700 entries from throughout the globe.

Other winning entries included those from The Walt Disney Company in Burbank, California; Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan; Home Digest Magazine, Oakville, Ontario; ESPN, Bristol, Connecticut; and University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago.

From Acacia to Ziziphus: Arabian Plants to Nourish the Body and Earth began as a research project for CNA-Q’s Environmental Health Technology instructors Carla Eskow and Keith Williams; they intended to compile research into a paper that would total approximately 25 pages.

“We started by identifying some of the key environmental and health challenges faced by Qatar,” says Williams.

“Then we came up with ways in which plants could be used to treat some of those problems. For example, some plants are anti-cancer; others have the ability to sequester polyaromatic hydrocarbons from oil spills.”

With a year of information collection, photography and research, and assisted by six CNA-Q students, the project blossomed into a 73-page full-colour, hard cover book that has been distributed to educational institutions and libraries throughout the Middle East, Europe and Canada.

Dr. Karen McDonald, director of Environmental Health at Concordia University in Alberta reviewed the book upon receiving it at her institution last summer.

“From reading the title of this book, the reader is instantly drawn into an exotic and sumptuous world. More than a reference book, the photographs and language convey the beauty and uniqueness of these plants from the Middle East,” says McDonald.

“Overall, this book beautifully shares the rich and unusual plant life of a part of the world that may seem mysterious and foreign to those of us in North America. It certainly led this reader to ask what plants where I live similarly deserve such careful documentation and preservation.”

Other awards won by the publication this year include the Platinum Hermes Creative Award for Publication along with an Honourable mention for Design (www.amcpros.com), and a Pinnacle Award for Special Publication from the International Association of Business Communicators (www.iabc.nf.com).

For more information on the APEX awards, visit: http://www.apexawards.com and to learn more about this unique publication, visit CNA’s website: http://www.cna.nl.ca/News/newsletters/Winter_2010.pdf

-30-

Media contact:

Tanya Alexander
Public Relations Specialist
Qatar Project Office
709.643.0811
tanya.alexander@cna.nl.ca