Glendale College’s El Vaquero newspaper staff brought home 11 awards from the 50th annual Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) state-wide convention in Sacramento at the Doubletree Hotel from April 7 through 10.
JACC promotes journalism at the community college level through competitions and workshops.
At the state-wide conference, the organization offers competitions in news writing, feature writing, team feature writing, sports writing, headline writing, page layouts and photography.
It is an experience in which students from community colleges all across California take part in to compete.
Contests were based both on on-the-spot competitions that were done at the conference and mail-in entries that were sent prior to the event.
Staff member Bianca Gallegos won first place for investigative writing for her a two-part piece which looked at cheating on theGlendale College campus.
Cynthia Perry received a total of three awards at the JACC convention.
She received a third place award for the bring-in photo essay and two on-the-spot awards. One was an honorable mention for sports photography and the other a fourth place in news photography.
Elizabeth Linares, another photographer on staf,f received two awards in the bring-in category — one was fourth place and another was an honorable mention.
“This is my third award at JACC and was surprised in Sacramento that I was awarded two awards in the same category and never expected that I would be recognized for all my hard work,” said Linares. “It feels great being a winner.”
Benjamin Grenard agrees. “It was great to win my first time at JACC,” he said. “It will last in my memories for the rest of my life.” Grenard received a second place award for the bring-in advertisement which was based on a rising gas prices theme.
“I really enjoyed writing the article about some outstanding students at GCC and I’m glad that JACC honors articles about socially challenged students,” said Nancy Agbenu after receiving a fourth place award for her bring-in news feature story for an article she wrote in 2004 about the disabled student club.
Geghard Arakelian received a bring-in 2004 honorable mention for a critical review article he wrote in the fall. “It was my first time winning and it was very unexpected and interesting to receive such a mention on the state-wide level,” said Arakelian.
The paper also won an honorable mention for the bring-in front page layout competition and a general excellence award for its Web site (www.elvaq.com). Michael Arvizu is the Web site editor.
The convention began Thursday evening with competitions in feature writing and critical review and a Journalism Trivia Bowl which El Vaquero editor Maria Kornalian attended. “The trivia bowl was a nice break from the more vigorous aspects of the convention because it allowed us to meet students from other schools and have a light-hearted competition that we all enjoyed,” she said.
The workshops consisted of lectures from learning how to write for public relations, freelance sports photography, cartooning, conducting interviews and investigating reporting tips. These workshops were all held at the Double Tree Hotel in Sacramento.
There were also state capitol tours taking place during the competitions for all JACC members sponsored by the event. “It was my first time seeing the state capitol. Being in Sacramento definitely made it a memorable experience,” said staff writer Violeta Arrazola.
Friday and Saturday held most of the on-the-spot competitions with two award ceremonies as well. One was for the bring-in 2004 and 2005 awards and a sit down dinner for the on-the-spot awards.
Staff members Olga Ramaz, Arakelian, Arrazola, Michelle Mack, Gallegos, Linares, Abegnu, Grenard, Arvizu and Kornalian all attended the convention in Sacramento.