The Valley Star earns General Excellence recognition at JACC

Valley College’s journalism program received meritorious awards for newspaper, magazine and online categories at a conference held by the Journalism Association of Community Colleges.

By: Rosemary Villalonga, News Editor

The Journalism Association of Community Colleges held its statewide conference in San Francisco on March 7, where the Valley Star and the Crown staff earned the association's top honor: General Excellence for the newspaper (The Star), magazine (Crown), and website.

The Valley Star is one of only two community colleges out of the 21 in attendance to take the top award in every publication category, alongside City College of San Francisco. These awards are earned based on the overall quality of the publications reporting, photography, design and editorial leadership.

"It feels really nice to have our hard work be recognized," said Kaia Mann, former editor-in-chief of the Valley Star and Crown Magazine. "Putting these issues out is such a group effort, so every win is collective. My entire team should be proud." 

In total, The Star and Crown staffs earned 11 awards across writing and photography disciplines. Former Photo and Managing Editor, Astrid Cortez, was awarded first place for the magazine photo category. She also took home first in magazine photo story-essay alongside Alex Diaz and Taylor Cowhey for their coverage of Valley's out-of-state football players. Cortez and Diaz are both studying journalism at California State University, Northridge and San Jose, respectively.

"To have Out-of-State win the regional JACC awards, and now State feels like it was all worth it," said Diaz. "I have followed the story since the moment I stepped into the newsroom, and it is definitely a full circle moment for me." 

Photographer Anita Boli won first for an environmental portrait of a Chicano professor that ran in the Valley Star Newspaper in February 2025. She joins students Milan Rafaelov, Kaia Mann, Jeremy Ruiz, Victoria Saxxon and Alejandro Rafael as the individually awarded staff members. 

JACC announced the awards at the ACP Spring National College Media Conference held at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero in San Francisco. The association serves 40 community colleges across the state and works to support journalism departments and their students. The competition provides an opportunity for student journalists across the state to have their work evaluated by professionals in the field and compared with other participating colleges. 

"I hope this inspires the current students to continue working hard, and future students who may be interested in journalism and photojournalism to give Valley a shot," said Mann.