MISSION VIEJO : Saddleback Wins 19 Journalism Awards

Saddleback College journalism students won 19 awards at a statewide competition in Fresno earlier this month.

The Lariat student newspaper was judged third-best student publication in California among two-year schools by the Journalism Assn. of Community Colleges.

In addition, the school received first-place awards for front-page layout, headline writing and opinion writing.

Saddleback College also did well in the on-the-spot competitions, winning several awards, including three first-place honors.

In the on-the-spot contests, journalism students are given a topic or event to cover and are given a deadline to finish the assignment.

“I am extremely proud of our students’ performances in the on-the-spot competitions,” said Lariat adviser J. Mike Reed.

“I feel this aspect of the conference speaks well of the journalism principles we teach in our program.

“It is also rewarding to see the students’ hard work and dedication recognized with general-excellence awards.”

On-the-spot first-place winners were Arash Gholam, who won awards for advertising design and info-graphics, and Sam Felsenfeld in the sportswriting competition.

Second-place and honorable-mention winners were Ben Delaney, Stacy Brown, Tina Visnic, Robin Schnug, Brian J. Cummings and Gholam.

Charles Hoey won first place in opinion writing.