Winning numerous awards in writing competitions, the EC Union newspaper staff attended the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) Southern California conference.

Members of the Union staff participated in on-the-spot writing and photography competitions against other schools and went to journalism workshops at the conference, which was held at Cal State University, Fullerton, Stella Sutphin, editor in chief of the Union, said.

“JACC is a great conference for community college students to go to,” Sutphin said. “They really get to see the validation of the work that they do.”

Sutphin won in the on-the-spot broadcast news-writing competition, which she said was a new competition at JACC.

Other EC on-the-spot winners were Katrina Romero, who won for copy editing; Dennis Alvillar, for sports photograph; Kara Ogushi, for critical review writing; Mary Chou, for feature story writing, and Josh Finke and Juliana Kung for team feature, which is the combination of a feature story and a photograph together.

“I think we did very well,” Katrina Romero, co-news editor of the Union said.

EC also won the general excellence award for both the Union newspaper and the school magazine, Warrior Life.

Sutphin said one of the Union’s staff advisers, Jolene Combs, is even getting an award from the Community College Journalism Association for her achievements.

“Both of our advisers are wonderful,” Sutphin said. “They have had so many students who have gone into the field, but they are still here to teach us so we can develop.”

JACC hosts a Southern California conference in the fall and a statewide (southern and northern California) conference in the spring. Sutphin said that EC often wins awards at the conferences.

“It proves to us that we really are on the right track,” Sutphin said.

Kara Ogushi, features editor, said she was surprised when she won in the critical review competition.

For her entry, she had to review a documentary about surfing called “Orange Crush,” which she said she didn’t like.

“I had a hard time because every time I wrote something positive (about the film), I found something I could counteract it with that was negative,” Ogushi said.

The Union also won awards for stories from last year’s newspaper at the conference. Winners include Cristian Vasquez, Eva Allen, Ramiro Rodriguez, David Scarpero, John Hill, Michele Polendey, Tony Conte and Marna Beilby.

“Some people from other colleges are really into the competitions and others are really relaxed,” Sutphin said.

Sutphin said that the students from the Union are generally mellow about competing.

“I think that makes us stand out among other people, because we go out there and try our best,” Sutphin said.

Sutphin also said that JACC is a good place to get to know students from other colleges.

“It feels good to be part of a staff, and then you go to JACC and meet other staffs. You can compare things like how they work and how you work.”

Romero said that this semester’s Union staff is not very large this semester in comparison to last semester’s, which she said made the Union’s amount of awards an impressive accomplishment.

“I think that we did excellent,” Sutphin said.

Romero said she looks forward to competing at JACC next semester, although this time around she was very cautious in her copy editing competition.

“With stuff like that I can’t just second guess myself, so it was a good thing I had a dictionary at hand,” she said.

Overall, Sutphin said the JACC conference is a great experience.

“There’s always something different you learn,” she said.