Bakersfield College’s student newspaper staff continued a tradition by earning general excellence in the state at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges conference last weekend in Sacramento.
The Renegade Rip reached the general excellence criteria for its print and online editions published during the 2008 calendar year. Only 16 community college newspapers among the 65 in the state earned the print award. To achieve general excellence, newspapers are judged by professional journalists and must attain a certain number of points in categories such as content, page design, photography and news judgment.
The Rip staff also won several individual awards in the JACC mail-in competition.
John Ornelas, a photographer on last semester’s staff, won three awards in categories that have up to 120 entries each.
Ornelas took first place in the state for news photo. The photograph was taken on election night of people in Bakersfield reacting to Barack Obama’s presidential victory.
Ornelas also was awarded fourth place for feature photo and an honorable mention for sports feature photo.
Ally Armstrong, the Rip photo editor last semester, earned honorable mentions in sports feature photo. The Rip’s Seggan Moore and Liz Clarke, both on the current staff, earned honorable mention for online photo essay multimedia show on the BC football team.
Last semester’s editor in chief, Joel Paramo, placed third in front-page layout for broadsheet newspapers and earned an honorable mention in inside page layout for a broadsheet newspaper. He also won an honorable mention for news story.
For this semester, Rip editor in chief Gabino Vega Rosario received an editor recognition award, and Rip adviser Danny Edwards was honored as JACC volunteer of the year along with Paul McLeod, an adviser for Saddleback and L.A. Harbor.
In on-the-spot competition at the conference, Rip online editor Andrew Ansolabehere won an honorable mention for broadcast news writing.
The annual conference drew more than 50 colleges and more than 600 community college journalism students. The conference featured workshops, contests and various activities related to journalism instruction.