The Los Medanos College Experience staff brought home 17 awards from the Associated Collegiate Press National spring media Conference held in conjunction with the Journalism Association of community colleges. The annual event was held at the Hyatt Regency in Long Beach, March 6-8, with about 820 students in attendance from community colleges and universities throughout the nation.
The Experience staff won the Pacesetter, the highest annual JACC award for the print edition, and also won the meritorious award for General Excellence.
Current and former Experience staff members won awards that were a part of the on-the-spot contest that students could participate in and awards that were entered for the conference.
Current Editor-in-Chief Gabbie Munoz and former Editor-in-Chief Aliyah Ramirez jointly won first place for Front Page Layout. Munoz also placed first for the On-the-Spot contest at the conference for News Judgment and Layout.
Aliyah Ramirez also won second place for Inside Page Layout, or a two-page spread done for Women’s History Month in March 2024.
Former graphics editor Alexis Ramirez won fourth place in Photo Illustration for the cover of the section defining America, which featured immigrants with flags on their faces. She also won honorable mention in Photo Illustration for a graphic in the same special section.
Experience staff members Jordan Suisala and Ricky Montejo and guest host Malilitimari Suisala won first place in Audio News for their podcast ‘Last Two Brain Cells’.
Staff member Sarah Capperauld won first place honors in Feature Photo picture, accompanying a story “Los Medanos college de-stresses with therapy dogs”.
“I took that photo my first semester in Journalism and now as it’s my last semester I can’t help but feel like it is a full circle moment that made me feel like I have proven myself,” said Capperauld.
She also received an honorable mention for Critical Review for her “Chip Vs Crumbl” story that compared two cookie businesses.
Arts and Culture Editor Chijioke Onyeagucha won second place in Editorial for his two-page spread “On the ballot: Our Picks”, which featured the Experience staff’s selection in the 2024 election.
Former Sports Editor Juan Cebreiros won two honorable mentions, one in Photo Story-Essay for a collection of photos on the Stang’s vs. Ramb’s game, and another for a Sports Action Photo from a football game last fall.
A collective group of current and former Experience staff won an award as a team in Enterprise News Story/Series, students Aliyah Ramirez, Gabbie Munoz, Jordan Suisala and Darcy Meadows.
Other on-the-spot contest winners who attended the conference include Jordan Suisala in first place for Audio News. Online Editor, Lesly Fisiiahi in third place for Critical Review, and Koen Steers, received an honorable mention in News Writing.
Notably, the conference featured a variety of workshops including media design, reporting and writing, interviewing skills, online trends, graphics, law, ethics, and the emergence of AI.
“My favorite part of the conference was a workshop by Aaron Showtime Taylor. He was a play-by-play guy, but now he works for the Warriors,” said Steers, who added that he walked into the workshop by accident but enjoyed listening to his speech.
Fisiiahi attended a workshop that featured the documentary, “Chasing Chasing Amy” which is based on the movie “Chasing Amy.”
Fisiiahi, who won an award for Critical Review of the documentary, explained how she prepared for the contest.
“I did as much outside research as I could on both the documentary and the film it’s based on. I didn’t think I would place anything because I rushed to write everything. So it was a nice surprise when I saw my name,” said Fisiiahi.
