Talon Marks staff showed what it is made of at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges SoCal Regional Conference by winning General Online Excellence and seven other awards
The conference was held at Cerritos College on Saturday.
Ethan Ortiz, a journalism major and Editor in Chief of Talon Marks won honorable mention for on-the-spot News Writing contest.
Ortiz said, “It felt great to get an honorable mention for news writing, although I really wanted to place, I’m glad I earned something. I was nervous because I had a hard time concentrating during the actual competition; but when I got the recognition, it made me feel confident in my ability as a writer.”
He added, “I felt horrible last semester when we didn’t win any mail-in awards, so for Karla Enriquez, Kristopher Carrasco and Terrel Emerson to get recognized for their work last semester was a good feeling.
“Finding out we won Online General Excellence and that we may have been judged during the last few months during my time as Editor-In-Chief was so awesome. I commend everyone who helped make that happen and I’m so proud of my team.”
Ortiz also won an honorable mention last semester for news writing.
“It was a great feeling because that was my first journalism conference and I was able to bring something back to Talon Marks.”
Emerson, a journalism major and current Online Editor won first and second place for mail-in Sports Game Story.
He emphasized, “I just felt a sense of relief because I wanted one really bad. I didn’t even care that it was second place. When my name was called for first place too I didn’t even hear it.
“I didn’t win any awards at the last JACC that’s why this one means so much to me.”
After the disappointing night, Emerson shared advice with Talon Marks members, “I told everybody at the last JACC to remember that feeling because it sucks to not be recognized for hard work that we all did. These awards mean a lot to so many of us.”
Enriquez added, “I was so happy. Last semester, I was upset that we didn’t win any mail-in awards, it was a bit of a demoralizing feeling but it also propelled me to motivate myself and the team to work harder and try new things. So, to win Online General Excellence this semester and get mail-in awards was kind of a redeeming feeling.”
Enriquez is a journalism major and Managing Editor who took home second place in the mail-in news photo contest.
She expressed, “I was truly surprised, my heart was beating out of my chest. I was not expecting to win for news photo at all. I submitted two photos from the primaries that I was fortunate enough to cover, but I kind of just put that in the back burner and forgot about it.
“Before college I had my own photo business and photography is something dear to my heart, so it meant so much to even place, it was so special to me.”
Last semester Enriquez won an award for OTS video story contest and expressed, “I did win an award at the last JACC, my teammates Briana Velarde and Carrasco really are the ones that are truly talented at video story telling so I was able to learn a lot from them.”
Chantal Romero, a sociology major and a Platforms Editor for Talon Marks, won honorable mention for the OTS opinion competition.
“I was surprised, I didn’t know what to expect. I don’t know if the work that I put was enough or it was right because I never attend a conference like that, so I didn’t know how they were grading me.
“I know that I write strong opinion [pieces] I just didn’t know if it was at the level of the conference,” she said.
Carrasco, former Online Editor for Spring 2016 who won honorable mention for mail-in Infograph and mail-in webcast/broadcast expressed, “When I was called for the first two awards I really wasn’t expecting it all, especially since I was mainly there as a volunteer.
“I wasn’t even paying attention when we won the Online General Excellence Award so it really caught me off guard that Enriquez had told me to walk up to grab it. Then she totally went and grabbed my hand and took us both up there. It wasn’t until I grabbed it that I saw it was for online.”
