In March, many Cerritos college journalism students went to the JACC convention.

The conference was held in Sacramento and included many community colleges statewide.

The Talon Marks won online general excellence.

Several Students from Cerritos College won awards and Honorable mentions:

• Steven Martin, former editor-in-chief, won secnd place in broadcast journalism,
• Tim Dickerson, online editor; Esmeralda Infante, multimedia editor; and Gustavo Rangel, opinion editor won honorable mention in inside page layout,
• Ashley Aguirre, journalism student, won honorable mention for on-the-spot feature photo and
• Rick Gomez, sports editor, won on-the-spot third place for sports story.

Students were able to learn about the different sections of journalism through different workshops and competitions.

Many students that went felt that they came away with a lot of insight on the fields of journalism that they were interested in.

Gomez explained that he felt that he became a better sports journalist after coming back from the convention.

“They offered so much more for sports and I was able to take back the information and use it here.”

Celia Austin, staff writer, said, “It gave me a lot of experience and I would definitely go again.”

Ernesto Gomez, managing editor, said that he would definitely go to the convention again.

Gomez explained, “It helped me get along with my classmates better and I saw how other people managed their time and work ethic and it inspired me to better myself.”

Scott Garite, online community editor, thought it was very informative.

He said, “I was very impressed by what they had to offer and I learned more about the topics that I was interested in, such as the rock n’ roll workshop.”

Other students felt that they should have done things differently at the convention.

Guillermina Cervantes, staff writer, admitted, “I think (the convention) would have helped me more if I did more competitions.”

Though every student said that the convention was fun, many said that it was challenging.

“The news story competition was difficult because I wasn’t very familiar with the area,” Dickerson said.