By Phil Walzer

Only a year after it was launched, Old Dominion University's Monarch Extra e-magazine was honored by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, or CASE.

Monarch Extra recently received a Special Merit award in CASE's Southeastern district competition for "online innovation/experimentation."

The new issue of Monarch Extra is action-packed with creative animation and compelling interactives. You can literally see the women's rowing team moving across the page and experience Buddy Lee's amazing abilities with a jump rope - video proof of how he's turned his passion into a successful living.

The current Monarch Extra, which can be read at www.odu.edu/monarchmag, also features Shaomin Li, a business professor who served as a "soldier-artist" when he was a young adult in China, and a Q&A with an Old Dominion professor on Confederate memorials.

Monarch Extra is posted twice a year on Old Dominion's website. The e-magazine is produced by editor Philip Walzer, art director Karen Smallets and copy editor Janet Molinaro.

Monarch magazine, the print counterpart to Monarch Extra, also was honored in the recent CASE District III competition.

The magazine received a Special Merit Award in feature writing for Walzer's profile of Jennifer Mullen Collins, an alumna and former Old Dominion administrator. Mullen sought to learn more about the extent of the brain damage that her husband, a Navy SEAL, suffered in combat before he killed himself in 2014.

The next issue of Monarch magazine will be out in the summer.