The Renegade Rip, Bakersfield College’s student newspaper, was awarded general excellence in the state for the second year in a row at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges state conference held March 30-April 1 in Los Angeles.
The general excellence category is awarded only to community college newspapers that meet certain standards determined by a panel of professional journalists. Only 10 other broadsheet-size newspapers in the state earned that distinction. There are nearly 70 community college newspapers in the state.
The Rip also earned team awards in the mail-in competition, including general excellence for online edition and a third place for best use of photos and graphics.
Joshua Ayers, the Rip’s current editor in chief, won a JACC scholarship for the second year in a row – this one for $500. He will be transferring to Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo this fall.
Rip staff members were honored with several individual awards in mail-in and on-the-spot competition.
In the mail-in category, which consists of work completed in the Fall 2005 semester, Becky Jimenez took first place in the state for column writing, Katherine J. White was awarded second place in sports feature story, and Jacqueline White placed third for sports action photo and fourth for feature photo.
Honorable mentions were awarded to Ayers and Julianna Crisalli for front page layout-broadsheet, Crisalli and Ian Hamilton (photo story or essay), Victor Garcia (news story) and Hamilton (sports action photo).
In on-the-spot competition at the conference, Ayers took third place in front page layout-broadsheet, and Daniella Williams placed third in front page layout-tabloid. Honorable mentions were awarded to Williams (feature story), Garcia (front page layout-broadsheet), Daniel Peterson (editorial cartoon), Nick Stockton and Daniela Garcia (team feature), and Stockton (broadcast news writing).
In a bring-in awards competition, Peterson placed third and Ayers fourth for informational graphic, and Jose Vega won an honorable mention for feature photo.
The mail-in categories consisted of up to 150 entries per category in some cases. In on-the-spot competition, students participated in coverage of live events in Los Angeles and had to write stories and turn in photos on daily newspaper-type deadlines. In both contests, plaques are awarded for first through fourth place, and certificates are given to honorable mention winners.