Journalism Honors and Accolades

I want to start this post with a thought from the recent Presidential election. Though I disagreed with most of McCain’s message he had one otherwise overlooked idea that resonated with me.

McCain emphasized the importance of our community college system for continuing adult education. Since becoming a father at a young age I have attended many community college courses throughout the years, often to practice trade skills and enhance my career interests.

From photography to videography to journalism, there has always been a community college nearby with class hours convenient for a working adult and I am eternally grateful. By way of honoring my most recent Mass Communications instructors, below are a few of the awards I won while participating in their classes:

2008 JACC Broadcast Video Journalism – 2 Meritorious Awards: I submitted two video entries and won for each! My work while piloting the Video Journalism Class also helped the Express to win the General Excellence Award for both the paper and online version for the first time ever. This article mentions those 2 awards and other examples of excellent work by Las Positas College Students.

2008 LPC Express, Online Section Excellence, Video Journalism – Certificate of Recognition: How cool is this – Las Positas allowed me to finish the Video Journalism course for the first semester it was ever offered at the college, though I was the only student participating in the class! Many thanks to class instructor Jin Tsubota for his effort to instruct a new class with only one student.

2007 Walter Hecox Award for Excellence in Investigative Journalism: As News Editor for the Express in the fall of 2006 I wrote several investigative pieces, including a series on safety at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in it’s effort to attain new plutonium for nuclear experimentation, and a debate about parking on campus. I was honored to win this scholarship in the spring of 2007.

2007 JACC Opinion Story – Honorable Mention: I honestly don’t remember which article I submitted, whether it was the romp against Bill O’Reilly’s imaginary War on Christmas or the more serious piece against construction of new nuclear weapons. I do remember having enjoyed taking a stance on issues and conducting a lot of research to support the perspectives when writing most of the editorials for the paper that semester.

2006 JACC On-the-Spot News Writing – 3rd place: Maybe I would have placed higher if I had taken more time at the end of the contest to check my spelling? I don’t know but 3rd place out of about 30 contestants isn’t too shabby!

2006 LPC Express, Excellent Written Contribution – Certificates of Recognition: I was awarded the in-class honor twice that semester (on Sep. 1 and Oct. 27) for excellent written contribution to the paper.