By Victor Henderson/multimedia editor

From 78 entries, a NW Campus graphic and multimedia design major has won TCC’s Achieving the Dream button contest.

Deanna Stewart, selected as the overall winner, said she decided to submit a design after seeing an email advertising the contest.

“I didn’t have anything to lose, so why not,” she said.

Coming up with ideas was more difficult for her than actually creating the button, Stewart said.

“I went through four or five different ideas but finally decided that a typographic design would be best,” she said.

As the overall winner, Stewart received a $500 reward, lunch with NW Campus leadership, the privilege to park in the president’s parking space for a week in addition to the prizes the campus winners received.

“As a whole, the contest made me believe in what I can do and reinforced my love for design,” she said. “It made me want to push my limits even further with my work in the future and inspire others.”

Individual campus winners included Alycia Lee, TR winner; Marquis Shine, SE; Timothy Veach, NE; and Alexander Roper, South. Their prizes consisted of an 8 GB USB drive, a water bottle, a monogrammed backpack, a student success kit full of school supplies and 500 buttons to be produced and distributed on their respective campuses.

NW Campus art professor Eduardo Aguilar said he was excited when a student from his campus was selected as the overall winner and said he hopes students will be pleased with the design.

James Ramirez, director of student success initiatives and coordinator for the contest, wanted to connect the students, faculty, staff and administrators. He and the team of coordinators thought having a button that could be shared on each campus was the best way to do that.

“We’re really excited about it,” he said. “We got some great artwork.”