Bakersfield College’s student newspaper, the Renegade Rip, earned general excellence among community colleges in the state for the eighth year in a row.
The general excellence category and other awards were announced at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges state conference March 22-24 in Sacramento. Rip staff members attended the conference, which drew more than 600 students from more than 50 community college newspapers.
The Rip also earned general excellence for its online edition, which can be viewed at therip.com.
Professional journalists judge all contest entries, and newspapers must achieve a certain standard in several areas to be considered for general excellence. Among the 70 community college newspapers in the state, only 18 earned that distinction for 2007.
The Rip staff earned several individual awards in mail-in and on-the-spot categories.
In the mail-in category, in which work from the 2006 school year can be entered, the Rip’s current editor in chief, Nick Stockton, placed second in editorial writing and fourth for sports game story. Stockton plans to graduate in May and attend UC San Diego.
Stockton also earned special recognition from JACC for his role as editor in chief on the Rip.
The Rip’s Anna Robledo and Lisa Vargas placed third for front-page layout in the broadsheet division. Robledo is the current news editor, and Vargas was the Rip’s online editor in fall 2006.
Katherine J. White, the Rip’s campus editor, earned two honorable mentions for news story and profile feature story.
Jose Vega, the Rip’s photo editor in fall 2006, won an honorable mention for sports action photo, and Joshua Ayers, the editor in chief in spring 2006 and now a student at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, won an honorable mention for inside page layout.
At the conference, several on-the-spot contests were held, in which students covered real events and wrote stories on daily newspaper deadlines. Stockton won first place for broadcast news writing, and Rip reporter Crystal Roberts, competing in a JACC event for the first time, won an honorable mention in that category.
In the team feature category, Rip photo editor Erik Aguilar and Rip reporter Chris Garza earned an honorable mention. Danny Edwards, BC journalism professor and adviser of the student newspaper, received an extra-mile award from JACC for contributions to the organization involving contests and workshops.
Mail-in categories for the state competition typically draw between 80 to 120 entries each. The on-the-spot categories draw between 40 to 70 students each. Awards are given to the top four places, and up to six honorable mentions can be given in any category.