MISSION VIEJO : College Journalists Collect 29 Awards

Journalism students at Saddleback College took home 29 awards recently from the annual conference of the Journalism Assn. of Community Colleges, held in Fresno.

The staff of the college’s student newspaper, the Lariat, received 10 awards for mail-in submissions and nine awards in the conference’s on-the-spot competition.

The college’s student magazine, Saddleback Magazine, earned 10 awards in the mail-in competition.

The on-the-spot competition pits journalism students from different colleges against each other. Each student is given an hour to complete an assignment such as writing a feature story or developing a news photograph.

In on-the-spot competition, Lariat Editor-in-Chief John L. Cruz, a Mission Viejo resident, took first place in front-page layout, and staff member Ron Jackson, a Huntington Beach resident, placed first in computer copy editing.

“I’m especially pleased with the performance of the students in the on-the-spot competition,” said Lariat adviser Mike Reed. “This kind of competition is a reflection of what we teach in our educational program.”

In the mail-in category, the Lariat placed third in general excellence and third in headlines.

Individual winners were Tiffany Crosswy, former editor of the Lariat, who won first place in editorial writing, and Sharon Swaim, another former editor of the newspaper, who took third place in column writing.

Two staff members of Saddleback Magazine won awards in the mail-in competition. Todd Gardner placed first in the news feature category, and Richard Baldy placed first in the light essay/humor category.