The Channels staff took home 12 awards at the 2019 Journalism Association of Community Colleges Southern California conference at the California State University, Fullerton on Saturday. 

Eleven students, accompanied by Acting Faculty Advisor Josh Molina and Lab Teaching Assistant John Rose, participated in a variety of workshops, discussions and competitions.

“I am thrilled that student journalists from The Channels and Santa Barbara City College had the opportunity to participate in this prestigious journalism conference,” Molina said. 

The Channels competed against 20 colleges and more than 200 students in both mail-in and on-the-spot competitions. For mail-in, The Channels won in the critical review, environmental portrait, sports action photo and editorial, which explained why The Channels decided to eliminate the comment section. In the on-the-spot competitions, The Channels students won in the opinion writing, news writing, news photo, critical review and copyediting contests. 

Eight students won one or more awards: Sarah Maninger, Jun Starkey, Lauren McGee, Serena Guentz, Nate Stephenson, Alejandro Gonzalez Valle, Ryan Cruz and Max Mullins. 

“The Channels continued its tradition of excellence in student journalism, winning several awards and standing out as among the best community college journalists in the state,” Molina said.

The Channels also played a greater role in the conference, with Editor-in-Chief Jun Starkey and Opinion Editor Sierra Shelton being the JACC Student President and SoCal Representative, respectively. Shelton introduced the keynote speaker and led the awards ceremony, while Starkey passed out awards and held an editors’ roundtable to discuss journalistic practices with other college newspapers. 

“It was cool to step out of my comfort zone,” Shelton said about presenting the awards. “It was a huge learning experience, and it was very rewarding.”