Talon Marks, Cerritos College’s student newspaper, won the General Excellence Award for its print and online publication at the annual Journalism Association of Community Colleges’ State Conference that was held in Sacramento, Calif. on Saturday.

The award is given to community college newspapers that excel in 25 categories.

In order for a college to receive a general excellence award the college has to surpass certain standards that are set by JACC.

Talon Marks last received the print general excellence award in 2006.

“I’m proud. It’s not just me that did it, it’s the individual efforts of everyone,” Victor Diaz, online editor, said.

Individual competitions were also held during the week and weekend of the conference.

Gregory Horsey Jr., production manager, received third place in the News Judgment/Layout contest and first place for the People’s Choice layout.

“I’m glad I won first place for the People’s Choice Design, it shows that a lot of people out there have a sense of design,” he said.

Honorable mention was awarded to Multimedia Editor Joey Berumen for bring-in ad, Diaz for copy editing, Co-Opinion Editor Jimmy Edwards-Turner for editorial cartoon and Social Media Editor Gonzalo Saucedo for sports story.

Editor in Chief Andrea Mora said, “I think that last semester we grew so much, and even though we didn’t get a lot of awards we expected, a lot of the new people got to compete and learn, and I’m extremely happy with what we did.”