Bakersfield College’s student newspaper staff again collected general excellence awards and several individual awards at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges state conference April 8-10 at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
The student newspaper, The Renegade Rip, was one of 13 community college newspapers in the state to achieve the general excellence standards determined by professional journalists who handle the judging. There are more than 60 community college newspapers in California.
The staff’s Dissenter magazine, which debuted in the fall of 2009, also won general excellence against extremely tough competition. The staff also published the Dissenter for this semester, and it is currently being distributed to the campus community.
In individual competition, last semester’s magazine editor, Johnie Burch IV, won first place in the state for mail-in column writing. Burch also gained an honorable mention for magazine feature story (non-profile). Also in the mail-ins, David Karnowski placed second for magazine cover and earned a meritorious award for one of the top 10 online photo essays.
In mail-in critical review, Andrew J. Ansolabehere placed second and Kelly Ardis, the Rip’s current editor in chief, was third in the state. Leia Minch, last semester’s editor in chief, placed third in editorial writing. Ardis and Minch also received an honorable mention for front-page layout, and Minch and artist Minami M. Perales won an honorable mention for inside page layout. Perales also won honorable mentions for magazine illustration and informational graphic.
Gregory D. Cook, this semester’s multimedia editor, won a meritorious award for online photo essay and an honorable mention for sports feature photo. Cook also was one of eight students statewide to be selected for a JACC scholarship, earning $100 from the organization.
The mail-in contest entries are comprised of work done in the 2009 calendar year. Typically, each category will have close to 100 entries statewide, and judges pick first through fourth and up to six honorable mentions. ?
In on-the-spot contests, which take place at the conference, Karnowski and Brian Willhite combined to earn an honorable mention in the Team Feature 2.0 category, which consists of finding a story in an area of Los Angeles and putting together a multimedia show complete with photos, voice overs and text in less than 24 hours.
The Rip’s Samantha Garrett earned an honorable mention in the on-the-spot cartoon contest.
The on-the-spot contests involve covering events as they happen and completing stories, photographs, cartoons and page designs shortly after the event. Nearly 700 community college journalism students attended the event, which involved workshops, contests and other media-related activities.