Burbank, Calif. – The Journalism Association of Community Colleges held its 2012 State Convention from March 23 to 25.
“The Annual Convention is a three-day affair for students and faculty that offers a full array of workshops, contests, meetings and more. This premiere JACC event rotates annually between southern and northern California,” according to the JACC official website.
Ten Fresno City College students, led by adviser Dympna Ugwu-Oju, traveled to Burbank to participate in this conference, bringing back with them several awards for their participation in on-the-spot competitions.
FCC students Troy Pope and Kaitlyn Raegan participated in the opinion writing competition which required students to produce a written opinion piece based upon their interpretation of a video which outlined the negative portrayal of women in the media. Troy Pope took fourth place in this competition.
Abel Cortez, Annette De Dios, and Olga Verkhotina participated in the team feature competition. Participants were taken by bus to the 2012 Rancho California Arabian Horse Association in Burbank, Calif. and were required to produce a feature story combining audio clips and photography into a sound slide presentation.
The FCC Team Feature participants took third place out of eight total teams for their portrayal of self-employed horseshoe maker, Bob Dugger, who was contracted by the Rancho California Arabian Horse Association to serve as the exclusive horseshoe repairman for the show.
Alex Tavlian competed in the JACC Trivia Bowl where nine contestants, divided into three person teams were quizzed on questions regarding AP style, current events, journalism history, and JACC history. Alex advanced through four rounds of questioning and defeated the final two contestants to be declared the winner.
FCC Honorable mentions included Paul Schlesinger for his submission to the bring-in photo competition, along with Jordan Russell for her participation in the copy editing competition. The Fresno City College Rampage also earned recognition of General Excellence for tabloid publications.
JACC is a non-profit organization that supports community college journalism programs statewide. It is directed by an elected board of directors who represent students and faculty statewide and is divided into NorCal and SoCal regional divisions.
The conference gave FCC students the opportunity to network with and share ideas with fellow community college journalists from all regions of California, representing Fresno City College.
“The conference gave me a better understanding of what it takes to be a successful journalist,” said Olga Verkhotina. “I brought back with me ideas I could use to improve my journalism skills and am able to say I represented FCC in a positive way.”
