Santa Monica College student journalists win big at state competition

The Santa Monica College student newspaper Corsair won 16 awards – including General Excellence – at the 57th annual state convention of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges held recently in Burbank.

The results of mail-in contests recognizing top work from last year were also announced at the convention, which was held last month. More than 550 students from nearly 50 community college journalism programs participated in the event.

First-place awards were given to SMC students Michael Yanow for sports photograph, Patricia de Borba for video journalism, Chris Alves for feature photo and Paul Alvarez for news photo. In addition, Andy Riesmeyer won the Wayne Overbeck Free Speech Video contest and was awarded a $200 prize.

SMC students from two journalism classes that are advised by Saul Rubin and Gerard Burkhart produce the Corsair print and online news sites.

The annual convention brings together journalism students from Southern California community colleges for a three-day convention featuring on-the-spot writing and photography contests and professional workshops.

The Corsair awards at the 2012 state convention included:

On-the-spot awards:

First place, Sports Photo: Michael Yanow

Third place, Feature Photo: Asta Karalis

Fourth Place, News Judgment/Layout: Nathalyd Meza

Honorable Mention, Team Feature: Paul Alvarez, Nathan Gawronsky and Andy Riesmeyer;

Bring-in Categories

First Place, Free Speech Video: Riesmeyer

Third Place, News Photo: Jeff Cote

Third Place, Bring-in Ad: Israel Villacota

Honorable Mention, News Photo: Yanow;

Mail-in Categories: