Students from The Oak Leaf at Santa Rosa Junior College took home 25 individual and staff awards at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges conference in San Diego.
Nineteen journalism students attended the conference March 7-10 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in La Jolla, where they participated in three days of workshops and on-the-spot contests with other students from the 41 California community colleges that are members of JACC.
As a staff, they won JACC awards for “Online General Excellence,” and “Magazine General Excellence.” They were also one of three schools to win the “Digital Pacesetter” award, based on quality of digital publication combined with placings in both published and on-the-spot competitions.
The conference also included the Associated College Press, which boasts more than 570 members, and the California College Media Association. SRJC won two national awards, judged amongst attendees from all three organizations. They finished in fourth place for their website and fifth place for their magazine in the category of two-year campuses.
Several students won top individual awards for published work from the last year. Leilany Sosa won first place in the magazine opinion category for her story, “Fading in and out,” about her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. Cameron Romanick received first place in the news story division for his descriptive coverage of “Indigenous Peoples Day at SRJC.” Sam Guzman won first place for feature photo with a powerful picture he took over the summer. Guzman also won third-place place in the profile feature category for his story “Living in Hiding,” about an SRJC student who fled China. Oscar DeJung received a second-place finish in podcast/audio news for his three-part podcast “The Last American Outlaws.” Max Millan won a second-place award in magazine opinion for “Dreaming in Limbo,” a story about his experience as a DACA recipient.
SRJC journalism instructor and The Oak Leaf advisor Anne Belden said, “I’m always thrilled to see my students win awards at the state level. It’s very affirming of their growing skillsets when they can compete and win, especially in the on-the-spot competitions. They leave with confidence that they can succeed in this highly competitive field.”
In the on-the-spot competitions, Oak Leafers took home multiple awards. Max Millan and Hana Seals won first place in the team feature contest. In the news photo category, Rosemary Cromwell received second place. Cromwell finished third in the news judgment/layout category. Cameron Romanick finished in second place in the opinion writing category and Salvador Sandoval-Garduno finished in third place in the creative portrait category.
“We all return to Santa Rosa exhausted but bonded by the experience,” Belden said.
