Expanding their knowledge of journalism and winning six awards, EC students participated in the 55th Journalism Association of Community Colleges state convention the weekend of spring break, Lori Medigovich, journalism professor and newspaper adviser, said.
More than 600 students from 45 community colleges, most in California, but one from Rhode Island, participated in the convention in Los Angeles.
Twenty of EC’s own students represented the college in 13 on-the-spot competitions and many more mail-in competitions.
The Union newspaper won a general excellence award at the convention.
“Winning general excellence, competing against 45 different colleges and being one of the top 12 to win an award really shows the quality of the Union,” Medigovich said.
Alex Curran, 20, editor-in-chief of the Union, won honorable mention for his editorial cartoon during the on-the-spot competition.
“It was a great learning experience on how to write with a tight deadline,” Curran said.
Winning another honorable mention was from Union, Nelson Amaya, 20, sports editor, who competed in the on-the -spot sports writing.
“I didn’t think I had a chance or that I wrote anything well,” Amaya said.
“But it was so awesome to hear my name. It really caught me by surprise.”
Toney Fernandez, 22, photography editor, won an honorable mention in on-the-spot sports photography.
Lucy Guanuna,, 23, journalism major, won an honorable mention in the mail-in feature story competition.
There were also more than 70 workshops offered in a variety of aspects in journalism.
One workshop offered was titled “Rock ‘n’ Roll Reporting,” and discussed about what it is like to write about music, Curran said.
“There was a lot of insight and pointers from the speaker,” Curran said.
“Writing about music is what I want to get into, so that workshop was really cool,” he said.
Along with competitions and workshops, there was also an election for the state student JACC president.
Haipha Simon, 32, managing editor, ran for JACC state student president and won.
“It is really awesome that Haipha ran for state president,” Medigovich said.
“I know Haipha will work long and hard for the students, and she is certainly deserving of the position,” she said.