Journalism class continues to be successful at conference

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The City College Times staff brought home 20 awards from the Journalism Association of Community Colleges NorCal conference on Sept. 21.

These students won awards in several categories such as news writing, webcast news, news photo, editorial cartoon, and many other awards in similar categories for the work of the staff of previous semesters, as well as many on-the-spot contests.

Sonia Waraich, 24, City College Times copy editor, won an honorable mention award for an on-the-spot editorial cartoon contest. It was her first time attending JACC.

“I like drawing and it felt nice to have that recognized by professional people,” said Waraich.

Taylor Atkinson, 20, media arts major and City College Times online editor, also attended JACC for the first time and won an award for an on-the-spot contest.

She won an honorable mention award for the news writing contest.

“It was very exciting to win; I wasn’t expecting to win anything at all,” Atkinson said. “I think (JACC) is an experience that every college newspaper student should experience.”

This JACC conference was special for the Times staff because the keynote speaker, Marcos Breton, is an alumnus of San Jose City College.

Linh Nguyen, 20, media arts major and City College Times ad manager, said it was really exciting to hear a former City College Times staff member speak at JACC.

She said it made her feel like one of the current Times staff members could possibly speak at a JACC conference in the future.

Breton said he was not a well-to-do student and he called himself “the accidental journalist.” He is now a news columnist for the Sacramento Bee.

At the JACC conference Breton said he hoped to leave the journalism students there with the idea that they are building their careers, life and experiences now.

“His experience was similar to what I am experiencing right now because I am an international student; I am not a native speaker and there are so many times I want to give up, and it was the same for him because he was shy and had a speech impediment,” Nguyen said. “Now he is a successful journalist and I think that is what he was trying to tell other student journalists- to not give up, to keep trying and to keep working hard, and eventually they may become someone like him.”