San Diego City College journalism students took home 15 awards from the statewide publication and on-the-spot competitions held by the Journalism Association of Community Colleges at its annual spring conference in San Francisco last weekend.

The conference, run in conjunction for a second year with the Associated Collegiate Press national convention and co-sponsored with California College Media Association, brought together 700-plus student journalists and faculty from around the nation.

JACC is a nonprofit organization that facilitates events between students, educators, photographers, professional journalists, editors, and other reporters, according to its website.

That includes a statewide conference inviting students and educators to compete in publication and on-the-spot competitions.

Students can submit work they have done for the publication section and participate in on-the-spot competitions where they have limited hours to complete an assignment and submit it. Both categories give awards in various sections such as audio, writing, video, photography and publication cover design.

Kathy Archibald, who was part of the City Times team last year, won the first place award for magazine photo section and fourth place for magazine cover design.

Archibald, whose work was submitted by City Times Media adviser Nicole Vargas, was elated when she found out she won the awards.

 “It was a little unintentional,” she said. “I did not expect those at all.”

Susana Serrano, City Times managing editor, won the first place award for video journalism.

Serrano’s award-winning video focused on children from the nonprofit The House of Music as they prepared for the Cuba Llego concert in San Diego last spring.

Serrano, who has completed production courses in radio/podcast and TV news production at City, was especially honored to receive this award due to her love for video production of events happening in local San Diego communities.

“My first love is video making and editing,” said Serrano, who was elected JACC student president at the conference. “So whenever I have the chance to cover, and to actually show people, I do it. Getting that award just makes me feel so proud of myself and makes me feel like I’m in the right place.”

In all, the staff of City Times Media, which covers all of the student media partners at City College, received two awards in the on-the-spot competitions and 13 publication awards. 

On-the-spot awards

• Kathryn Gray, third place for feature writing
• Joel Nevarez, honorable mention for sports writing

Publication awards (covering work produced in 2022)

• City Times Media, meritorious for general excellence (online)
• CTTV/Newscene staff, honorable mention for webcast/broadcast news
• Kathy Archibald, first place for magazine photo and fourth place for magazine cover design
• Susana Serrano, first place for video journalism
• Jakob McWhinney, second place for magazine news feature (non-profile)
• Jakob McWhinney and Philip Salata, second and third place for podcast and audio news
• Ingrid Estrella and Josh Hernandez, fourth place for video journalism
• Philip Salata, honorable mention for feature photo and student-designed ad
• Shamere Grimes, honorable mention for feature story (non-profile)
• Kathryn Gray, honorable mention for feature story (non-profile)

Correction: An earlier version of this story did not include the team awards won. They have since been added. City Times regrets the error.