And, the winners of the Higher Ed Experts scholarships for the #heweb11 regional conferences are…

Last month I announced the introduction of 5 scholarships supported by Higher Ed Experts to help members of the higher ed web community attend 2 different High Ed Web Regional Conferences this summer: HEWeb Rochester and HEWeb Arkansas.

This was tough to choose and I really want to thank all the people who took the time to submit an entry. The winners were selected based mainly on their situation (I tried to give a chance to professionals newer in our field) and some for their originality.

After reviewing the essays (well, comments) of all the participants, I’m happy to announce the names of the winners.

Winners (and winning entries) of the $260 scholarships to attend High Ed Web Arkansas:

• Stephanie Miles (University of Iowa)

  “I’m a young professional just getting my feet wet in the higher education world, and one of my first large projects is to oversee a complete web redesign. My education is in online media, but I’d love the chance to learn from top professionals in the industry and get introduced to the higher ed web community.”

• Andrea Mostyn (Missouri State University)

  “I’m a communications/public relations professional, but have been spending more and more of my time working on web projects. I believe I could use more training in website content and organization to apply to our university’s effort to redesign all academic websites.”

Winners (and winning entries) of the $150 scholarships to attend High Ed Web Rochester:

• Todd (Northeaster University in Boston, MA)

  “There are several challenges / opportunities we are facing right now: a newly formed web production team, a relatively new CMS and multiple initiatives for realigning online content. Attending the conference would provide my team members and me an opportunity to network with other professionals in the higher ed web world, to exchange ideas, and to establish grounds for future collaboration.”

• Courtney Mallam (York University in Ontario, Canada)

  “As a keen new professional in the higher ed web field, I’ve been devouring as much information as humanly possible with the goal to eventually contribute to the industry as an innovative, creative thinker + do-er. That being said, attending the conference would allow me to continue to share with and learn from the awesome people that do what we do.”

• Rob Engelsman (Ithaca College, NY)

  “As a recent grad and new full-time member of the HigherEd jungle, I’ve become fresh social media meat wrangling through the challenges presented in the constantly changing environment of new media. The conference program is chock full of resources and conversations that could ensure I don’t end up getting eaten alive, a phrase that no doubt extends my metaphor to its limits.”

As specified in the rules of the scholarship contest, the checks will be given at the conference. Winners are asked to register and send me an email at karine@higheredexperts.com to confirmt they will attend the event.