The El Camino College newspaper, The Union, and its staff, won multiple awards for their work in the previous fall and spring semesters including second place for Newspaper of the Year.

The Union staff members from the previous spring and 2017 fall semesters won 19 individual awards from the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) competition for Southern California.

Former staff members who won awards in the competition were Zach Hatakeyama, Oshari Arnett, Faith Patrie, Justin Traylor, Jorge Villa, and Jamie Woods.

Current staff members who also received awards are Jack Kan, Melanie Chacon, and Jose Tobar.

Traylor is currently the editor-in-chief of Warrior Life Magazine.

Together, The Union staff garnered one first-place award, five second-place awards, three third-place awards, six fourth-place awards, three honorable mentions, and an award for general excellence from the JACC.

From the College Media Association (CMA), The Union was awarded second place for Newspaper of the Year as well as two honorable mentions for Best Editorial Cartoon and Best Opinion Page/Spread.

The CMA competition is nationwide and includes both two year and four year educational institutions.

The honorable mention awarded to The Union for Best Editorial Cartoon was for work done by Jose Tobar on his cartoon about affordable housing.

The honorable mention for Best Opinion Page/Spread was for work done by Petrie.

About The Union’s success, their advisor, Stefanie Frith, said the Journalism department has a long history of training students to become good journalists.

“To be named as one of the best two-year college newspapers in the country is a huge honor,” Frith said.

Update Tuesday. Nov. 13, 12:12 p.m., Various grammatical and structural elements were edited, additional detail was added for clarification and accuracy.

Update Tuesday, Nov. 13, 11:46 a.m., Spelling on Stefanie Frith’s name was corrected. The Union regrets this error.