On Thursday, March 17 students from Talon Marks newspaper attended the Journalism Association of Community Colleges State Conference in Burbank, California.

At the Saturday, March 19 Awards Banquet , editors from Talon Marks took home awards for on the spot news writing and on the spot video journalism.

Platforms Editor Briana Velarde, Online Editor Kristopher Carrasco and Editor-in-Chief Karla Enriquez took on the on-the-spot video journalism contest, bringing home second place, while News Editor Ethan Ortiz received an honorable mention in on the spot news writing.

“I’m fairly confident in our video editing and our storytelling skills so I wanted us to enter and work hard to bring home an award, since this category means so much to us,” said Enriquez.

The task given was to head down Magnolia Avenue in Burbank, find a story and create a video.

Enriquez expressed, “The most nerve-wracking part was traveling that mile or so trying to find a compelling story to tell visually.”

The trio stumbled upon an eclectic collectable store named Blast from the Past, which featured fandom memorabilia ranging from TV, film, comics and cartoons.

There they interviewed the owners, a husband and wife team, and the store manager, a man from Essex, England, who had little else but the couple in his life at the time of his arrival in the United States.

They began the editing process at midnight and scanned through three hours of footage in efforts of making the video about two minutes long.

“I kind of manned the computer through out the most part […]” said Carrasco, “We went through all the footage and wrote down what was the most key footage that we were going to use.”

Talon Marks competed in this same competition at last year’s JACC state convention in Sacramento and received an honorable mention.

This year they were determined to win, if not, place in the video journalism category. “I kind of had this knack for video journalism […] It’s like my thing and I’ve been pretty successful,” said Carrasco, “Since last year I noticed we got an award for it, I was doing something correct.

“I notice a jump in my skill, I’d like to say from last year to this year […] I was really determined to do video journalism again and win first place.”

The team took home second place much to their disappointment, but they were still grateful for the award and the experience that it came with.

Carrasco commented, “When our name wasn’t called on honorable mentions, I got very relieved because I knew we were going to place […] But I felt we had a very strong video and we were very experienced in what we do.”

Enriquez added, “To me, it was an amazing feeling to see our names displayed on the screen saying we had won an award for our work.

“At the end of the day I’m ecstatic I was able to work in a team with people I respect and admire, I learn so much from both Kris and Briana daily, so for them to let me participate while I’m still honing my multimedia skills was really cool,” she concluded.

On the news writing front, Ortiz, along with about thirty other participants, sat and listened to some of the journalists who covered the San Bernardino shootings that occurred last year.

The assignment was to cover the panel and write a news story.

“We had an hour to do it, so there wasn’t much time to prepare, but when you’re on a deadline, the job has to get done,” said Ortiz.

His skill for news writing earned him an honorable mention at the convention.

“Getting honorable mention in the news writing competition was awesome. The contest was fast paced, so there was very little time to think, but I’m glad I was able to bring something back,” said Ortiz.

“I’m also super thankful to Alicia Edquist and Rich Cameron, our advisers, who stress the importance of developing multiple skill sets when it comes to journalism and for stressing and teaching us the importance of video storytelling,” concluded Enriquez.

A special recognition was reserved for Alicia Edquist who received the Rich Cameron Volunteer of the Year award.