2016 State Publications Contest Results
Here are the results of the 2016 State Convention for Publications competitions as announced at State Convention on March 18, 2016. (CLICK LINKS TO SEE WINNING ENTRIES) * Judges comments are added below entry.
Column Writing
1 Caleb Owens-Garrett, Fresno City College
*Judges Comments – It was a pleasure to read the many entries in this category. Students expressed their opinions on many topics and generally did a good job.
2 Megan Randolph, Santa Barbara City College
3 Kyle Smith, Chaffey College
4 Brianne O’Sullivan, Ohlone College
Critical Review
1 Thom deMartino, Golden West College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Emilie Christensen, Saddleback College
*Judges Comments – Excellent first-person approach with humor, satire and social commentary. Many reviews of this movie were just as “tired” as the film. This was bright and formative.
3 Zachary FR Anderson, Sacramento City College
4 Lauren J. Mapp, San Diego City College
HM James Molina, Citrus College
HM Brian Boyle, Contra Costa College
HM Cesar Hirsch, Southwestern College
HM Alan Luna, Southwestern College
Editorial
1 The Current staff, American River College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Bianca Elena Quilantan, Southwestern College
*Judges Comments – Makes its point directly and powerfully. Doesn’t pull punches or use 10 words when one good one will do. Love the lead.
3 Nubia Valdez, Citrus College
4 Coast Report Staff, Orange Coast College
HM John Fordiani, El Camino College
HM Hannah Gonzales, Pasadena City College
HM Joyce Melendez. San Diego Mesa College
HM Mac Walby, Santa Barbara City College
Editorial Cartoon
1 Serina Mercado, City College of San Francisco
*Judges Comments – This is one of too-few cartoons in the competition that actually says something. Using a strong caricature and sense of irony in modifying Nazi views to today’s news, this cartoon stood out.
2 Antony Marchiando, Santa Barbara City College
3 Michelle Phillips, Southwestern College
4 Emily Hermosillo, Citrus College
Enterprise News Story/Series
1 Keely Damara, Philip McCormick & Kristen Luna, Pasadena City College (story 1) (story 2) (story 3)
*Judges Comments – A national story broken by student reporters that led to a lawsuit overturning the outgoing president’s generous severance package.
2 Cody McFarland, Contra Costa College
3 Lina Chankar, Southwestern College
4 Cody McFarland, Contra Costa College
HM Santa Monica College Staff, Santa Monica College
Feature Photo
1 Ramses Lemus, Santa Monica College
*Judges Comments -The expressions are priceless. While showing faces reflected in mirrors is something of a photographic cliche, it sometimes yields interesting images – and this is definitely one.
2 Cody Casares, Contra Costa College
3 Nicole Haun, Santa Barbara City College
4 Katja Liebing, Pasadena City College
HM Bianca Elena Quilantan, Southwestern College
Feature Story (non profile)
1 Bianca Elena Quilantan, Southwestern College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Estefany Gonzalez & Maci Martell, Santa Rosa Junior College
*Judges Comments – Well-written piece on contraceptives. Expert opinion, medical information and students’ comments are woven together to provide a thorough look at the topic.
3 Keely Damara, Pasadena City College
4 Kristen Riedel, San Joaquin Delta College
HM Kameron Schmid, American River College
HM Marco Siler-Gonzales, City of San Francisco
HM Lee Grabill, Los Angeles City College
HM Alberto Calderon, Southwestern College
Front Page Layout (Broadsheet or Tabloid)
1 The Advocate Staff, Contra Costa College (FPL 1, FPL 2, FPL 3)
*Judges Comments – It is as if you consulted the Virginian Pilot when designing your newspaper. Great design, clear story hierarchy, pleasing to the eye. How can you make it better? I am all for multiple entry points into a story, at times you go overboard on layouts that could use the white space.
2 Barbara Harvey, American River College
3 Evan Solano, Citrus College
4 Jesse Sutterley, Diablo Valley College
Illustration
1 Barbara Harvey, American River College
*Judges Comments – The use of text messages combined with the silhouette tackle the issue works very well. This caught my eye right away.
2 Cody McFarland, Contra Costa College
3 Bobby Brown, Fresno City College
4 Bobby Brown, Fresno City College
HM Serina Mercado, City College of San Francisco
Informational Graphic
1 Victor Santander, Dan Cordero & Stephanie Garrido, Southwestern College
*Judges Comments – Wow. Nicely done. Very interesting. Has nice flow and it’s easy to read.
2 Doug Young, De Anza College
3 Evan Solano, Citrus College
4 Patrick Huaranga & Brennon Dixson, San Jose City College
HM Nicole Silveria & Kalama Hines, Las Positas College
Inside Page Layout (Broadsheet or Tabloid)
1 The Advocate Staff, Contra Costa College
*Judges Comments – None
2 William Miguel, Santa Monica College
3 Bianca Elena Quilantan, Southwestern College
4 Barbara Harvey, American River College
Magazine Cover Design
1 Mason Masis & April Abarrondo, Southwestern College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Dave Newlands & Michelle Kelly, Skyline College
3 Beatrice Alcala, Los Angeles City College
4 Angelica Wallingford & Joe Kendall, San Diego City College
Magazine Design/Layout
1 Barbara Harvey & Emily K. Rabasto, American River College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Michele Lee, Sacramento City College
3 Matthew Patton, City College of San Francisco
4 City Times Staff, San Diego City College
Magazine General Excellence
Dam! Magazine staff, American River College
*Judges Comments – None
Warrior Life Staff, El Camino College
*Judges Comments – None
Tami Shepherd & Kirk Sylvester, Ian Jones, Las Positas College
*Judges Comments – None
Kristen Luna & Keely Damara, Pasadena City College
*Judges Comments – None
Magazine Illustration
1 Aaron Wiseman, Long Beach City College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Jose Tobar, Los Angeles City College
3 Prentice Sanders, City College of San Francisco
4 Jose Tobar, Los Angeles City College
Magazine News Feature (non-profile)
1 Emily K. Rabasto, American River College
*Judges Comments – Kudos to Emily K. Rabasto for not only producing a well-written look into the world of pickup lines used by men to attract females, but in contributing the photos as well. Dating, or picking someone up, is probably the world’s most popular sport … and has been engaged by almost everyone no matter their age. This story does an excellent job of digging into this world through the world of Double B, otherwise known as Bryan Barton who has picked up all the information he can about dating tips that work through research and not his own personal experience. The story goes beyond just tossing out pickup lines by explaining what “kino” and ‘negging” mean. This is an excellent example of solid feature writing.
2 Jake Camarena, Los Angeles City College
3 Mark Elliott, San Diego City College
4 Celine West, El Camino College
Magazine Opinion
1 Kay Barnes, Sacramento City College
*Judges Comments – This author showed a lot of sophistication in their writing. Most notably, the use of age to create a certain cadence and uniformity of structure through the piece. I also loved the very effective use of short sentences throughout. It was a pleasure to read.
2 Rita Losch, Santa Rosa Junior College
Magazine Photo
1 Emily K. Rabasto, American River College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Tami Shepherd, Las Positas College
3 Tammy Kaley, Sacramento City College
4 Jean-Paul Udeh, El Camino College
Magazine Photo Story-Essay
1 John Fordiani & Amira Petrus, El Camino College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Andrew Perez, Southwestern College
3 Ramona Peterson, Las Positas College
4 Jack Watts, City College of San Francisco
Magazine Profile
1 Barbara Harvey, American River College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Keely Damara, Pasadena City College
3 Joe Kendall, San Diego City College
4 Neil Protacio, Pasadena City College
News Photo
1 Gegham Khekoyan, Los Angeles City College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Brandon Barsugli, Santa Monica College
3 Kyle Schmidt, Santa Rosa Junior College
4 Michelle Menes, Chaffey College
News Story
1 Alci Rengifo, Santa Monica College
*Judges Comments – Well-written story explaining major news story’s connection to reader.
2 Andrew Dyer, Southwestern College
*Judges Comments – I was skeptical about this story after I saw the headline, thinking it would be a bunch of students piling onto a tough grader or something, but clearly, these concerns have some merit. The reporter did a good job providing details of the complaints, getting a variety of voices and, as we find out, persistently trying to speak to the professor and dean about the issues. My one small critique is that those rebuffed efforts to talk to Ibarra should have been noted earlier in the story — his reaction to their attempts to talk to him, if anything, reinforce the case.
3 Kameron Schmid & John Ferrannini, American River College
4 Joseph Delano, Los Medanos College
HM Barbara Harvey & John Ferrannini, American River College
HM Patrick Forret, Fresno City College
HM Jason Burch, Fullerton College
HM Robeal Tefamichael, San Diego Mesa College
HM Maci Martell, Santa Rosa Junior College
Newspaper General Excellence
The Current Staff, American River College (GE 1, GE 2, GE 3)
*Judges Comments – The Current is a newspaper that has a definite personality and, in the tradition of journalism, pushes and envelope and takes risks. These issues devoted much coverage to a campus bomb suspect and crime news seems to dominate the coverage, but I also liked the front-page editorial titled “Silent Treatment” over the college adminstration’s handling of the bomb suspect information — that showed no small amount of courage to raise issues. The features, far from fluff, tended to tackle serious issues, from the “Faces of War” profiles to a transgender student overcoming homelessness. The design is appealing and the newspaper is to be praised for accompanying almost all of its articles with photos or art.
Viking News Staff, Long Beach City College (GE 1, GE 2, GE 3)
*Judges Comments – What stood out for me about The Viking Press was the solid, interesting writing. All the other elements were executed nicely. The design was clean and the opinion and sports coverage was solid.
Lariat Staff, Saddleback College
*Judges Comments – This is an excellent newspaper, from front-page to inside page design (I like the “teasers” or “skybars” atop the page.) to the writing, which is catchy and tight. Coverage is balanced, including sports coverage. And I liked the features — such as the one on affordable housing.
City Times Staff, San Diego City College (GE 1, GE 2, GE 3)
*Judges Comments – The City Times is a very, very good newspaper with all the elements: balanced coverage, interesting subjects, nice design and good opinion and sports pages. I thought several of the leads tended to be long – for the sake of completeness. The writing was solid.
Online General Excellence
The Current Staff, American River College
*Judges Comments – Visual appeal, excellent use of photography, easy to follow format, very newsy throughout all sections. A first-rate web site and web experience. The winner in a very, very talented field.
*Judges Comments – Just a very nice web experience. Very visually appealing site, but backed up by good reporting, visuals, video, etc. A lot of care and planning go into this site.
Agustin Garcia, Moorpark College
*Judges Comments – Excellent reporting and concise stories. There’s a lot of thought that goes into the stories covered here. Some excellent journalism.
Staff, The San Joaquin Delta College
*Judges Comments – Excellent depth of reporting. Best hard-news web site among all entries. Good flow to the site. Strong visually.
Online Photo Story/Essay
1 Amanda Looma, Santa Monica College
*Judges Comments – Nice photo essay that kept me interested to the end. Editor tried to keep photos in sync with the audio commentary. I would like to have read who shot the photos of G over what period of time.
2 Jon Peacock & Cindy Macias, Long Beach City College
3 Cesar Hirsch & Mason Masis, Southwestern College
4 Ramses Lemus & Adam Thomas, Santa Monica College
Opinion Story
1 Southwestern College Andrew Dyer, Southwestern College
*Judges Comments – A well-written opinion piece, this commentary is well-argued and uses specific examples to make the author’s point. Good command of language with interesting word choice and varied sentence length. Engaging and impactful.
2 Zachary FR Anderson & Jonathan Taraya, Sacramento City College
*Judges Comments – None
3 Agnessa Kasumyan, Glendale College
4 Amber Lipsey, Pasadena City College
HM Irene Arbramian, Glendale College
HM Laura Tapia, Riverside College
HM Mac Walby, Santa Barbara City College
HM Haley Holmes, Skyline College
Photo Illustration
1 James Schaap, Moorpark College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Brianna Guillory & Tami Shepherd, Las Positas College
3 Hanajun Chung, Chaffey College
4 Brianna Guillory & Angelica Estacio, Las Positas College
Photo Story-Essay
1 Dotan Saguy, Santa Monica College (Beach 1, Beach 2)
*Judges Comments – This package illustrates a tenet of good photojournalism that is often overlooked these days: If you have a great image, go big with it. This double-truck presentation is followed by another page of interesting photos from a beach cleanup. Great work!
2 Cody Casares & Qing Huang, Contra Costa College
3 Evan Solano, Citrus College
4 Cody Casares, Contra Costa College
HM Tritan Bellisimo, El Camino College
Profile Feature Story
1 Ronja Jansz, Santa Monica College
*Judges Comments – Good lead that sets the scene and gives the reader a good roadmap to where the story is headed. Writing is engaging. Story educates the public and puts a human face on a condition most people don’t know about.
2 Linda Nguyen, San Diego Mesa College
*Judges Comments – A moving story that was made even more so by interviewing a person who lived through the events. Well-written.
3 Richard Reyes, San Joaquin Delta College
4 Alberto Calderon, Southwestern College
HM Thomas Rebelo, Ohlone College
HM Thamina Shah, Ohlone College
HM Mike Madriaga, San Diego City College
HM Faith Gates, Santa Rosa Junior College
Sports Action Photo
1 Daniel Feldtkeller, Santa Barbara City College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Jose Lopez, Santa Monica College
3 Keely Damara, Pasadena City College
4 Daniel Boyer, Santa Monica College
HM El Camino College John Fordiani, El Camino College
Sports Feature Photo
1 Barbara Harvey, American River College
*Judges Comments – None
2 John Fordiani, El Camino College
3 Jazmyne Cushenberry, Santa Barbara City College
4 Nicole Wong, Santa Barbara City College
Sports Game Story
1 Nicholas Baltz, Southwestern College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Matthew Peirson, American River College
*Judges Comments – None
3 Robert Clinton, Contra Costa College
4 Landon Hunt, Santa Barbara City College
HM Patrick Cochran, City College of San Francisco
HM Kevin King, Los Angeles City College
HM Ahmad Akkoui, Pasadena City College
HM James Powel, Santa Monica College
Student Designed Advertisement
1 Evan Solano, Citrus College
*Judges Comments – From type set and messaging, to overall format and use of space, this is a very impressive piece.
2 Sal Polcino, Glendale College
3 Richard Martinez, Los Angeles City College
4 San Jose City College Times Staff, San Jose City College
Video Journalism
1 Nicol Haun,Ryan Cullom & Megan Roberts-King, Santa Barbara City College
*Judges Comments – None
2 Austin Weatherman,Hannah Cameron,Nick Nenad & Niko LaBarbera, Saddleback College
3 Bijon Barnes & Bryan Gutierrez, Citrus College
4 Antony Marchiando, Riveros Harmony & Nicole Wong, Santa Barbara City College
Webcast/Broadcast News
1 Antony Marchiando,Daniel Feldtkeller,Nicole Haun & Megan Tonti, Santa Barbara City College
*Judges Comments – This is an excellent broadcast. Great presentation, writing and sources, though wish there had been an attendee interviewed. Appears to be a relevant topic to the student body, interesting and complete within 5 minutes. Great editing and original.
2 Bijon Barnes & Dennis Camargo II, Citrus College
3 Sahara Barba & Jeannine Garcia, Citrus College
4 Nick Nenad, Saddleback College