First place winners in California, the Oak Leaf is now poised to advance to nationals
The Oak Leaf, Santa Rosa Junior College’s award-winning student-produced newspaper, along with 15 staff members, received a record number of journalism awards at the Journalism Association of Community College’s (JACC) state convention in Burbank, Calif., which took place from March 22 through March 25.
The Oak Leaf took the award for general excellence for both print and online content at the convention. The paper also won the Enterprise News Award for their in-depth, on-the-ground coverage of the firestorm that burned through Sonoma County last October. The team earned top honors with the Pacesetter Award, a sweepstakes award honoring the top four schools in mail-in and on-the-spot convention competitions.
In addition to the high honors awarded to The Oak Leaf, 15 staff members won awards in several categories, including news writing, layout and photography. Staff members won an additional 19 individual awards for fall semester articles and the convention’s on-the-spot competitions.
Several students who helped report on the fires are also finalists in four Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Western Region Awards, covering four states, Guam and the Mariana Islands; and The Oak Leaf is a finalist for Best All-Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper. If they win, they advance to the national competition.
Additionally, six students are finalists in eight California Newspaper Publishers Association awards in writing and photo categories. Winners will be announced on April 14.
JACC awards for last semester’s work include the following:
The Oak Leaf staff received awards in print general excellence, online general excellence and enterprise news for fire coverage.
Dakota McGranahan, Rachel Edelstein and Amoura Deering received first place for the informational graphic category.
Dakota McGranahan won first place for feature photo and second place for environmental portrait.
Albert Gregory was awarded second place for news writing.
Michael Barnes won second place in the category of critical review.
Brandon McCapes received third place for feature writing.
Michael Barnes and Roberta MacIntyre shared the fourth place award in the category of webcast/broadcast news.
Brandon McCapes received honorable mentions in the categories of news writing and editorial.
James Wyatt received an honorable mention in news writing.
Michael Barnes was given an honorable mention in the editorial category.
Rachel Edelstein was given honorable mentions for both inside page layout and photo illustration.
In the JACC on-the-spot awards, Ian MacGregor received a first place for sports writing; Michael Barnes and Julia Modell won second place for team feature; Michael Barnes received third place for critical review; Brandon McCapes received third place for copy editing; Devin Schwarz received fourth place for news judgment; Rachel Edelstein won fourth place for editorial cartoon and Brandon McCapes received an honorable mention for news writing
—Submitted by Gina Lopez, marketing assistant, Santa Rosa Junior College
