Bakersfield College’s student newspaper, The Renegade Rip, was awarded general excellence status April 9 during the Journalism Association of Community Colleges state conference in Sacramento.
Only six California community college newspapers of broadsheet size earned the general excellence designation, in which schools enter five consecutive issues from the previous semester. The other winners were Cerritos, Contra Costa, El Camino, L.A. Valley and Southwestern. The award is the highest honor a California community college newspaper can win in the JACC state mail-in category.
Also in the mail-in category, in which student work from the Fall 2004 semester was entered, BC’s Phillip G. Kopp won first place for profile feature story; the Rip staff won general excellence for online edition; Ian Hamilton took second for news photo; Dennis Mahan won two awards in sports photo – a third place and honorable mention; Hamilton and Victor Garcia were fourth for front page design for broadsheet newspapers; and The Rip staff took an honorable mention in best use of photos and graphics.
At the conference, Josh Ayers, a first-semester reporter on the Rip, was awarded one of two $750 JACC scholarships.
Also at the conference, Rip students competed against students from other community colleges in several on-the-spot categories and collected more awards.
Daniella Williams took first place for opinion writing, Garcia was first in page design for broadsheet newspapers, and Mahan finished fourth in headline writing. Hamilton (broadsheet page design), Ayers (sports writing), Jacqueline White (feature photo), and Ayers and White (team feature) all earned honorable mention recognition.
Nearly 50 schools and more than 600 students – all members of their respective newspapers – attended the annual event. Each on-the-spot competition had up to 80 students entered with awards going to the top four places and up to six honorable mentions.