Congratulations to our journalism students for winning multiple awards in regional and national competitions. El Camino College's student newspaper, The Union, won second place in the Newspaper of the Year competition against two-year college publications from across the country. The College Media Association (CMA) award was announced during the CMA-associated Collegiate Press National College Media Convention in Louisville, Kentucky in October. The Union editions were produced under the leadership of three editors-in-chief, Dmitri Hansen, Emma DiMaggio and Zach Hatakeyama. In competition against student newspapers at both two-year and four-year colleges, The Union also secured honorable mentions for Best Editorial Cartoon for work by Jose Tobar and Best Newspaper Opinion Page/Spread for a page designed by Faith Petrie.
The Union also won awards at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges competition for Southern California, including a General Excellence designation for the Union newspaper's website, www.eccunion.com. A first-place award went to Jose Tobar for his editorial cartoon on affordable housing. Tobar also won second- and fourth-place awards for illustrations. Former Editor-in-Chief Zach Hatakeyama won several awards: second and fourth place for inside layout, second place for photo story essay along with Jorge Villa, third place for feature story and fourth place for feature photo. Villa also received third place in the environmental portrait category and fourth place for sports feature photo, plus an honorable mention for photo illustration. Oshari Arnett was awarded second place for column writing and an honorable mention for profile feature story, while Jaimie Woods received second place for sports feature photo. Faith Petrie was awarded third place for student designed ad, Justin Traylor a fourth place for magazine photo story-essay, Jack Kan a fourth place for feature story and Melanie Chacon an honorable mention for profile feature story. The awards were announced at the JACC Southern California conference at Cal State Fullerton at the end of September.
The Union is produced entirely by students enrolled in journalism classes. The newspaper is available on racks and at other distribution points throughout the El Camino College campus, as well as www.eccunion.com. Stefanie Frith, the adviser for The Union, and Kate McLaughlin are the faculty members in journalism. Luis Sinco is the photo adviser and Jack Mulkey is the advertising manager.