GCC’s newspaper, El Vaquero, and magazine, The Insider, won 34 awards at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges’ Southern California conference at California State University, Fullerton on Oct. 5 and 6. This is the most awards that the Glendale staff has ever brought home.
Community colleges across Southern California compete annually at the conference by submitting works from the previous year, as well as on-the-spot competitions.
“My favorite part about the conference was seeing the reactions from the staff when they won their awards,” said Eric Bourse, editor-in-chief of El Vaquero. “Almost everyone took something home this time around.”
For El Vaquero’s mail-in awards, Richard Kontas took first for best online photo essay, Jessica Bourse took second for best editorial writing, Angel Silva took second for best news story and John Ferrara took fourth for best news feature, just to name a few.
El Vaquero also took third place for best front page layout.
“I’m very proud of the staff for their hard work,” said Jane Pojawa, editor of The Insider. “We had an exceptionally eclectic mix of content in this issue and I was so pleased to see it come together.”
For The Insider’s mail-in awards, the big winner was Marlon Miranda, who placed in five competitions. Miranda took first place for best online photo, second place for best magazine cover, second place for best magazine photo, fourth for best online photo essay and honorable mention for best magazine feature, non-profile.
The Insider also took honorable mention for best magazine design/layout.
Throughout the conference, members of El Vaquero participated in various workshops and competitions to enhance their journalism skills.
“The workshop by Luis Sinco, photojournalist for the LA Times, was incredible,” said Eric Bourse. “The pictures he showed that he has taken over his career were the best photos I’ve seen from all the JACC workshops I’ve been to.”
The on-the-spot competitions included: feature writing and photography, copy-editing, sports writing and photography, critical review, news and photo writing, broadcast writing, editorial cartoon and editorial writing.
Each competition subject was a secret to writers and photographers before the competition, so that JACC could keep the competition as fair as possible.
On the first day of competition, Knott’s Berry Farm zombies invaded a press conference of feature writers and photographers.
After the invasion, writers had an hour to write and proofread before judging, while photographers had to submit their photos with full captions.
Also on the first day of competition, critical review writers saw singer/guitarist Kyle Tuttle perform original songs as well as covers of Wilco and Damien Rice. The writers then had an hour to write and polish their stories before judging.
At the end of the first day of competition, sport writers and photographers were taken to Fullerton High School Stadium to cover a high school football game between Troy and La Habra. After returning to Cal State Fullerton, writers had an hour to write their stories, while photographers had to submit their photos with captions.
To start the second day of competition, news writers, photographers, editorial cartoonists and opinion writers attended a keynote address that was the subject of their competitions.
The keynote speaker was Corey Johnson, an investigative reporter and 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Johnson explained to students the importance of investigative journalism and gave tips on how to be a successful journalist.
Johnson also emphasized the importance of verifying information for a story.
“The most awful feeling you can have is to not have reported the truth because you didn’t verify the information given to you,” said Johnson.
After Johnson’s keynote speech, news and opinion writers had an hour to write their pieces. The photographers had to submit their photos and captions, while the editorial cartoonists had some time to think of a cartoon and then had an hour to draw.
The final competition that a member of the El Vaquero staff participated in was broadcast writing. Staff writer Chris Rodd took an honorable mention.
The second day ended with the award ceremony where El Vaquero and The Insider took home numerous awards.
“I’m very proud of the staff, particularly the new members,” said Angel Silva, El Vaquero managing editor.
“It’s always good to see new members win awards for their works work, because that encourages them to stay in journalism and develop their skills.”
Visit the El Vaquero website at www.elvaq.com or The Insider at www.glendalecollegeinsider.com for more information.
JACC October 2012 Awards
MAIL-IN AWARDS:
Front Page Layout
El Vaquero Staff
3rd Place
Magazine Design/Layout
The Insider
Honorable Mention
Magazine Opinion Story
Leah Grzu
Honorable Mention
Online Photo Essay
Richard Kontas
1st Place
Web/Broadcast News
Ashley Carey
1st AND 3rd Place
Magazine Cover
Marlon Miranda
2nd Place
Magazine Illustration
Isiah Reyes
Honorable Mention
Student Designed Add
Eric Bourse
4th Place
Student Designed Add
Bertha Cardozo
2nd Place
Magazine Photo
Marlon Miranda
2nd Place
Online Photo Essay
Marlon Miranda
4th Place
Online Photo
Marlon Miranda
1st Place
Photo Illustration
Isiah Reyes
1st Place
Sports Action Photo
Roger Lai
Honorable Mention
Editorial Writing
Jessica Borse
2nd Place
Magazine Feature—Non-Profile
Marlon Miranda
Honorable Mention
Magazine Feature—Non-Profile
Darria Johnson
Honorable Mention
Magazine Feature—Profile
Matt Kemper
Honorable Mention
Magazine Feature—Profile
Erica White
3rd Place
News Feature
John Ferrara
4th Place AND Honorable Mention
News Story
Angel Silva
2nd Place
Opinion
Tatevik Manucharyan
3rd Place
Sports Game Story
Eric Borse
Honorable Mention
Sports Themed Story
Eric Borse
Honorable Mention
ON THE SPOT AWARDS:
Bring-In Photo
Rebecca Kruegar
4th Place
Feature Photo
Chantal Bevard
2nd Place
Broadcast News Writing
Chris Rodd
Honorable Mention
Copyediting
Eric Borse
Honorable Mention
Critical Review
Angel Silva
2nd Place
Feature Story
Chris Rodd
Honorable Mention
Sports Story
John Ferrara
Honorable Mention
