Campus News wins at regional conference

By Sergio Berrueta

Campus News won 11 awards at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges Southern California Conference this past weekend in Fullerton, Calif.

Students learn how to network with professionals in the journalism field.They attend workshops that cover a variety of subjects within the field.

Campus News brought home with eight publication awards and three on-the-spot awards. Publication awards are based on works published within the previous year while on-the-spot awards are based on the competition during the JACC.

Art Director Lindsey Maeda won the most awards out of the Campus News staff with four awards. This conference was her final opportunity to compete in layout and design after reaching her two year limit.

“Every semester, I’m trying to improve on my designs,” Maeda said. “The creative process is the hardest part about designing. You can make something look pretty, but it has to make sense, too. The hardest part of being a visual journalist is taking the stories, taking the main point and trying to elevate it in a way that’s going to be interesting to pick up the paper.”

Maeda garnered three publication awards — photo illustration and two in layout collaborations with other staff members including current editor-in-chief Jesus Figueroa for Front Page Layout- Broadsheet and former staff member Jazmin Tellez for Inside Page Layout- Broadsheet.

“I’m completely surprised finding out about the award, but also very happy,” Tellez said. “I learned a lot about myself during my time on Campus News. I grew as a person and learned I have a passion for writing even though at times I was shy, afraid, to get my stories published.”

Former staff photographer Mannie Miguel was ecstatic about his win for Sports Feature Photo.

“It feels great to be recognized for your work,” Miguel said. “Especially given that everyone on staff dedicated a lot of themselves to their work.”

Managing Editor and former editor-in-chief Danny Vasquez lead the award-winning spring semester and was presented with the award for General Excellence.

“At first, I doubted myself and my semester. I was worried that if we did a good job, if I did a good job as editor-in-chief last semester,” Vasquez said. “In the end, it showed that I worked really hard to make sure we were doing great.”

Thirteen members of the Campus News staff attended the conference with adviser Sylvia Rico-Sanchez. Adviser Jean Stapleton was absent for the event.

“The students are self-directed, reliable and dedicated. There’s very little supervising to do because they know what to do, they know what is required and they deliver,” Rico-Sanchez said. “Jean prepared me by having me accompany her to the last couple of conferences.She told me that the kids are good kids and they know what to do.”

Rico-Sanchez studied journalism under Stapleton and attended conferences in the past. Rico-Sanchez noticed the drastic changes from her time as a student to now.

“When I competed at JACC, I competed in the copy editing contest. We had to write our own headlines and we didn’t have computers, so everything was pen and pencil,” Rico-Sanchez said. “It’s mostly the technology. It’s more streamlined and the conference seems more fun.”

The SoCal conference this year was fewer than previous years with a thin crowd and without bring-in contests that are usually available, giving the conference less competitions.

Publication Awards

ELAC recipient of: Print General Excellence