Bakersfield College’s student newspaper, The Renegade Rip, was honored with two general excellence awards in the past few weeks.
The Rip was notified by the California Newspaper Publishers Association that it was a Blue Ribbon Finalist in judging for the top community college newspapers in the state for 2014. That designation means The Rip placed among the top four newspapers in the state but did not get first or second.
Making the final four of the CNPA general excellence contest is very tough do considering there are more than 50 community college newspapers in the state. The Rip has been in the top four three of the past four years, and in 2011 was the overall winner.
The Rip also earned general excellence for print at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges awards banquet April 11 at the state conference in Sacramento. Only 10 newspapers met the criteria needed to earn the general excellence designation, which is based on story content and editing, photojournalism and page design.
In individual awards, Alisia Sanchez, a reporter/photographer on the fall 2014 staff, earned third place for video journalism with a story on a BC maintenance worker. The multimedia show can be viewed on the student newspaper website at therip.com.
Also, current editor in chief, Elizabeth Castillo, recently was named the winner of the $1,000 California Community College Public Relations Organization writing contest, which is a statewide contest in which entrants turned in a published work. That work is judged, and a winner is determined. Castillo’s winning effort was a news story on immigration published in The Rip last fall.
The journalism program will also be well represented in graduates this semester. At least eight journalism majors will be receiving their two-year degrees with most of them transferring to four-year colleges.