For the second year in a row, Bakersfield College’s student newspaper, the Renegade Rip, was awarded general excellence in Southern California with the highest score of any other community college.
That news culminated an award-winning and productive trip to the Journalism Association of Community Colleges Southern California Conference at Cal State-Fullerton on Nov. 14-15. Not only did members of the Rip participate in on-the-spot conferences, workshops and take home 23 awards, but they did it with various fires surrounding the area that sent smoke and ashes through the Fullerton campus.
The general excellence award is part of the mail-in competition, in which schools turn in entries from newspapers published in spring 2008. General excellence is only awarded to community college newspapers that meet certain benchmarks for various categories, such as content, presentation, photography, editing, etc. The newspapers are judged by journalism professionals from Southern California. In 2007, the Rip tied with Mt. San Antonio College for the highest score.
This year, the Rip totaled 101 points, the highest among the other nearly 40 participating schools. Only one other school, El Camino, which scored 100, reached the 100-point mark. The other schools awarded general excellence were Santa Ana (97), Pierce (97), Moorpark (90), Southwestern (88), Citrus (85) and San Diego City (84). A school must achieve a score of 84 to qualify for general excellence.
Last April, the Rip was awarded general excellence in the state and was ranked among the top four community colleges in the state.
At the Southern California conference, surrounding fires on Nov. 15 caused several schools to leave the conference before the awards ceremony that evening. The Rip staff elected to stay for the ceremony, and then was able to drive straight home afterward because Interstate 5 had opened.
The Rip staff won several other awards at the conference.
In mail-in competition, the Rip also won general excellence for its online edition, which can be accessed at therip.com.
In individual mail-in awards, Rip photo editor Ally Armstrong won first place and second place in the sports feature photo competition. Lisa Vargas, a former Rip photo editor, placed first in sports action photo.
Joel Paramo, the current Rip editor in chief, placed second, along with Marcinda Coil (who graduated last spring), in front-page layout for a broadsheet newspaper. Paramo also won second place for inside page layout for a broadsheet and an honorable mention for information graphic.
Katherine J. White, a reporter and copy editor on the Rip, earned third place for news feature story and an honorable mention in the news story category.
Earl Parsons, a former editor on the Rip and now a junior at Chico, earned third place for critical review, fourth place for news feature story, and took honorable mentions for opinion writing and editorial writing.
Staff members also competed in on-the-spot competition at the conference, which involves covering live events and producing content immediately after.
The events simulate a daily newspaper operation, and the content must be produced in one hour, usually just after the event finishes.
In on-the-spot competition, Rip photographers earned four awards. Armstrong took fourth for sports photo and an honorable mention for news photo. She also placed second in bring-in feature photo. Rip photographer John Ornelas earned honorable mentions in news photo and feature photo. Paramo placed second in front-page layout, Rip reporter Andrew Ansolabehere placed second in broadcast news writing, and Rip reporter Kelly Ardis took third in critical review.