Up on the screen, he saw his photo of a baseball suspended in the air, flying towards a batter. And he learned its ranking—first place. After, another first-place award was announced—going to his best friend for one more sports photo. And after that, a first-place was again announced for a photo essay he had worked on with that same friend.
The awards—two of which were won in on-the-spot competitions and 13 of which were awarded for past work—were picked up at the JAAC (Journalism Association of Community Colleges) Southern California Conference that took place on Saturday, Oct. 21.
“And I was like, ‘Oh man, that’s perfect! I wish David [Pashaee] was here,’ said Benjamin Hanson, the current editor-in-chief of the Roundup and the photographer behind the baseball photo. “It’s a good feeling when you win an award, but it’s even better when you win it with your best friend.”
Desiree Chloe Genabe, Alexis Guevara, Benjamin Hanson, Sammy Johnson, Nathalie Miranda, David Pashaee, and Lindsey Whittaker won awards for their work on the Bull Magazine, KPCRadio and the Roundup News.
Hanson explained the awards are mainly for the students, but that advisers Jill Connelly and Jeff Favre take pride in them as well.
“I think it means a lot to them when they see a student win first place or honorable mention,” Hanson said. “I know that makes them very happy. It also shows prospective students that Pierce is a good place to go—they win awards, you know.”
Conference attendees had three opportunities to join breakout sessions, and one interesting panel for journalism major Fabiola Carrizosa centered on investigative journalism.
“That one was great because it showed you that it takes a group effort to crack down on an investigative piece and to get to the bottom of a story,” Carrizosa said. “It’s not a lone-man effort. It takes a collaborative team of journalists and photographers and people out on the ground to get a story. Based on what the people on that panel were saying, it seems very rewarding to do an investigative piece and print it out there. And sometimes you make a change without trying to or without being an activist. Things change thanks to investigative pieces.”
Film major Violet Garcia participated in a social media contest and attended a “Magazine Design Deep Dive” breakout session with Evan Solano, art director for KCRW and creative director and co-founder of theLAnd Magazine, and found it dynamic and engaging.
“He really made us feel like we were one of them, like he was our equal and he remembers what it was like to start school later in life, or to even get a start on what it is that you want to do later in life,” Garcia said.
“I walked into that classroom thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t know what I’m doing for my layout. Maybe this will give me a few ideas.’ And it really taught me that when you’re designing something, it doesn’t necessarily have to be conventional or ultra minimalistic or anything of that nature. The art that he was showing us took a lot of inspiration and had a lot of influence from Metallica and Iron Maiden,” added Garcia.
For Roundup News managing editor Rachael Rosenberg, one memorable moment was attending a breakout session led by Jaclyn Cosgrove of the Los Angeles Times, titled “How to be a good person (and journalist too).”
“That was about how to be a good person, but also a good journalist,” Rosenberg said. “That was more specifically talking about investigation stories, and how you have to know your boundaries, but you also have to get the story. Sometimes you have to accept that people don’t want to open up. Other times, a little pushing could help.”
“They were very outgoing and made good points, and many of those points will definitely stick with me,” Rosenberg added.
Carrizosa, who placed fourth in an on-the-spot news story contest, finds that attending journalism conferences drives students to continue learning and to improve their work.
“Going to the JACC conference is great because it’s always nice to be around like-minded people who are super passionate—and dare I say, nerdy—about journalism,” Carrizosa said. “So it’s nice to see other people who you can relate to on that level. It’s inspiring also, to see people who just came from studying journalism to now becoming professionals and hearing their point of view of what it’s like, and get their advice. As a student, what to do next, and what to look for down the line in the future.”
