A how-to survival guide for Z-day, coverage of a World War II veteran receiving his long-awaited medal of commendation and a cartoon to save PBS and Big Bird earned awards for La Voz Weekly at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges state convention April 13.
The staff of La Voz Weekly won a total of seven awards at the annual convention. Eight De Anza College students attended the convention held at the DoubleTree hotel in Sacramento. More than 50 community colleges competed for publication awards, on-the-spot contests and mail-in competitions.
Former reporter Wen Lee won second place in the features category for his article about classes offered at De Anza that could prepare students for a hypothetical zombie apocalypse, written for La Voz Weekly’s Halloween issue in Fall 2012. Former reporter and cartoonist Nareen Bagdasarian won fourth place for her political cartoon.
Former editors Andrew Puckett and Sara Gobets won second place in tabloid layout for a photo array featuring De Anza students at the 2012 March in March event. Gobets also won third place in the features category for her human-interest piece about Carl Clark, an African American World War II veteran who received his Marine Medal of Commendation after Foothill instructor Sheila Dunec led a 12-year national effort.
In the on-the-spot competitions, former editor Michael Mannina won first place for broadcast news script writing and fourth place in the copyediting competition.
The prizes came as a shock to him, considering De Anza’s journalism program does not teach broadcast news reporting.
“To win two years in a row, and we have no faculty specializing in that field, that definitely gave depth to our journalism program overall,” Mannina said.
News editor Nathan Mitchell won the mail-in essay competition for an essay about teaching news literacy in today’s digital age.
“I was surprised, and a little bemused,” Mitchell said, referring to the piercing screams and applause from his fellow staff members during the awards banquet. “I think I remember the reaction of all my fellow De Anza students more than my own.”
