The Channels staff of Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 received 16 awards at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) conference hosted at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero in San Francisco. 

The Channels team was composed of six editors, and four writers, as well as the Chair of the Journalism Department and Advisor to The Channels Darleen Principe, and Lab Teaching Assistant John Rose. JACC is an experience for two-year college students to attend panels, explore the city for a unique story, and compete in on-the-spot competitions.  

One of the opportunities available for the students was a keynote with Rick Green, the executive editor and chief content officer of Santa Rosa newspaper the Press Democrat. In his presentation, Green discussed the importance of keeping journalism alive and the responsibility that journalists have in keeping the public informed and updated.

Along with his keynote, selected students from each school were able to cover the speech and write an opinion piece of the presentation, which was submitted for a chance at placing during the JACC awards ceremony. Selected students also had the opportunity to create an editorial cartoon inspired from Green’s presentation.

This presentation is what staff writer Emily Castillo and Features editor Delaney Newhouse covered to achieve first place in an editorial cartoon and opinion article.

“As the names of the runners up were projected on the screen, I had my doubts,” Castillo said, reflecting on the awards ceremony. “When I saw it [my editorial cartoon] I said ‘no way’ and ran up there.” 

Taking place on the first day of the conference, Castillo just had one hour to submit her illustration, along with Newhouse’s opinion article.

“[My reaction] was feeling like I should apologize for the amount of noise we were making,” Newhouse said. “…but not so secretly loving it.” 

The Channels staff erupted with cheer as soon as a familiar name was announced.

The Channels staff won 15 individual awards, along with General Excellence for the online newspapers section. 

The Channels staff sent articles from the Fall 2022 semester and competed in on-the-spot competitions during the conference.

For mail-in articles, the students received honorable mentions for feature writing, enterprise news stories, column writing, environmental portraits, video journalism, and online photo essays. The on-the-spot award recipients were placed for news stories, a critical review, opinion writing, editorial cartoon, copy editing, and a team feature.

The group walked away from JACC with more confidence and drive for the remainder of the semester, as well as a close knit bond that came with working in a high-stress environment.