April 30, 2013 -- The Corsair, Santa Monica College’s student newspaper, won 14 awards at the 2013 state convention of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges, including General Excellence for online journalism.

The paper also reaped three first-place awards, with photo editor Paul Alvarez Jr. and former Corsair news editor Andy Riesmeyer winning for video journalism.

Alverez also took first place for feature photo, while Riesmeyer won second-place awards for broadcast news and news story.

Former Corsair photo editor Michael Yanow won a first-place award for news photo and two third-place awards, one for news photo and the other for photo story essay.

About 500 students from 41 community college journalism programs in California attended the 58th annual JACC state convention April 11 to 14.

“Students participated in Sacramento in several on-the-spot writing and photography contests and also attended workshops offered throughout the three-day event,” college officials said. 

The results of mail-in contests recognizing top work from last year were also announced at the convention, officials added.

Saul Rubin is the Corsair advisor and instructor of the journalism class that produces the print and online editions of the Corsair, while instructor Gerard Burkhart is the photo adviser.

JACC is a non-profit educational corporation dedicated to community college journalism located in California. It is run by an elected board of directors who represent both students and faculty from around the state.

Following is a complete list of SMC awards at the 2013 JACC state convention:

Publications Contest:  
First place, Video Journalism: Andy Riesmeyer and Paul Alvarez, Jr.
First place, News Photo: Michael Yanow
Second place, Webcast/Broadcast News: Andy Riesmeyer
Second place, News Story: Andy Riesmeyer, Nathan Gawronsky and Fatou Samb
Third place, News Photo: Michael Yanow
Third place, Photo Story Essay: Michael Yanow
Fourth place, column writing: Nathan Gawronsky
General Excellence, Online Journalism: Corsair Staff
 
On-the-spot Contest:  
First place, Feature Photo: Paul Alvarez, Jr.
Second place, Sports Story: David Yapkowitz
Third place, Sports Photo: David Hawkins
Third place, Opinion Writing: Jasmin Huynh
Honorable mention, Sports Story: Alex Vejar
Honorable mention, Critical Review: Merissa Weiland