La Voz News staff brought home 40 awards from the Associated Collegiate Press Spring College Media Conference in Long Beach from March 6 to 8.
The event brought together student journalists nationwide to compete, network and learn from industry professionals.
The conference was organized by three journalism associations. ACP is national, while the Journalism Association for Community Colleges and the California College Media Association are limited to California.
Staff won five ACP awards, 24 JACC awards and 11 CCMA awards. Among these included an ACP Best of Show third place award for best newspaper and a JACC Pacesetter award, which honors the three top-performing print publications of the year.
Student journalists competed by submitting previously published work, including articles, photos, podcasts, videos, cartoons and other forms of media. JACC also held on-site contests, where participants had a limited amount of time to submit their work.
The conference included workshops, keynotes and critique sessions with industry professionals. Speakers included staff from student newspaper the Pepperdine Graphic, Los Angeles Times breaking news reporter Hannah Fry and Stanford Daily writer Dilan Gohill.
Laura Widmer, ACP executive director, said 820 people attended the conference in total.
De Anza student Xitlaly Martinez, 24, journalism major, said her favorite memory of the conference was meeting a mentor-mentee pair.
“I started thinking about Farideh (Dada), my mentor, and when was the last time I ever felt this way about a professor, where I really admire and respect them for their craft?” Martinez said. “It’s a really beautiful relationship.”
Kaya Henkes-Power, journalism major at San Jose State University and executive editor at the Spartan Daily, spoke at the conference on reporting LGBTQ issues while protecting the community. Outside of their own presentation, Henkes-Power also met professionals that aid student journalists.
“We got to connect and get a great hotline with regards to lawyers,” Henkes-Power said.
Nicole Vargas, ACP board member, said that the conference serves as a foundation for improving the landscape of media, especially in community colleges, which gather various representative voices in one campus.
“The work that’s being done on college campuses across the country is incredible and impactful and makes real change happen,” Vargas said. “We are doing everything we can to keep the momentum, and the students are showing up. That’s going to be huge for (the) future of our industry.”
La Voz plans to attend the North California JACC conference this fall.
Awards received by La Voz staff
Associated Collegiate Press (5 awards)
- La Voz News – Best of Show Award, third place for newspaper/magazine (two-year campus)
- Carolyn Zhao – Best of Show Award, third place for reporting news story
- Joshua Hascall – Best of Show Award, third place for broadcast news story
- Frank Mayers – Best of Show Award, sixth place for photojournalism, sports photo
- La Voz News – Best of Show Award, seventh place for advertising media kit
Journalism Association of Community Colleges (24 awards total)
Publication awards (14 awards)
- Pacesetter Award for print media presented to De Anza College
- Meritorious Award for newspaper general excellence presented to La Voz Staff
- Meritorious Award for online general excellence presented to La Voz Staff
- Marcela Leticia Borges Silva – Meritorious, multimedia journalism package
- Nello Puelles and Ebony Campbell – First place for video hard news reporting
- Frank Mayers – First place for sports action photo
- Nello Puelles – First place for webcast/broadcast news show
- Nello Puelles – Second place for webcast/broadcast news show
- Sarah Atito – Second place for photo illustration
- Jose Islas, Xitlaly Martinez – Second place for video soft news reporting
- Frank Mayers – Second place for photo story-essay
- Vincent Scrivens, Ann Penalosa, Frank Mayers, Mackenzie Jardine, Ingrid Lu – Third place for front page layout
- Alice Shen – Fourth place for illustration
- La Voz Editorial Board – Honorable mention for editorial
On-the-spot competitions (10 awards)
- Ingrid Lu – Second place for news writing
- Ingrid Lu – Second place for feature writing
- Ashley Kang – Second place for news photo
- Gordon Yang – Second place for editorial cartoon
- Ann Penalosa and Ashley Kang – Third place for video
- Ingrid Lu – Third place for copy editing
- Atharva Salkar – Third place for editorial cartoon
- Joshua Hascall – Fourth place for critical review
- Sonny La – Fourth place for opinion writing
- Atharva Salkar – Honorable mention for creative portrait
California College Media Association (11 awards)
- Vincent Scrivens, Brooklyn Coyle, Orly Bryan – First place for general innovation
- Alice Shen – First place for best illustration
- Frank Mayers – First place for best sports photograph
- Marcela Leticia Borges Silva – Second place for best multimedia package
- Wylder Robison – Second place for best feature story
- Nello Puelles – Second place for best Spanish-language coverage
- Wylder Robison, Nello Puelles, Carolyn Zhao, Xitlaly Martinez, Ann Penalosa, Vincent Scrivens – Second place for best social justice coverage
- Joshua Hascall – Third place for best news or feature video
- Lauren Hartono – Third place for best print or online advertisement
- Orly Bryan – Third place for best newspaper column
- La Voz News Staff and Editors – Third place for best newspaper
