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:
General Excellence: Corsair staff
General Excellence, Online: Corsair staff
First place, Video Journalism: Patricia de Borba
First place, Feature Photo: Chris Alves
First place, News Photo: Alvarez
Second place, News Photo: Yanow
Honorable mention, Video Journalism: Hector Mejia
Honorable mention, Web/Broadcast News: Corsair staff.
Both the print and online Corsair news sites were honored by the journalism association with General Excellence awards.