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

Valley College was one of two California community colleges awarded General Excellence at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges state conference on Saturday for their newspaper, magazine and online publications. 

The Valley Star is highlighted as the only journalism and photojournalism program in Southern California recognized for the meritorious award in all three categories. These awards are earned based on the overall quality of the publications reporting, photography, design and editorial leadership.

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. It allows them to have their work compared with other participating colleges. 

Valley received 11 awards at the conference in divisions which included general excellence, magazine, photo and graphics. These awards acknowledged the work of individual students such as Astrid Cortez, Anita Boli, Taylor Cowhey and Alex Diaz who won first place in their division as well as Valley Star and Crown staff. 

The publication serves as a voice for campus events, student news, sports and opinion throughout the school year. The General Excellence meritorious awards for Valley’s newspaper, magazine and online publications honors the effort of the students and staff who produced the media.