James Schaap was playing a video game at home when he got a text message from his former colleague at the Student Voice.  Schaap’s colleague told him that he won first place at a journalism convention for one of the photo illustrations he produced last semester when he was a photo editor.

“I’m so honored and I wish I could’ve been there to accept it,” Schaap said. “At the same time though, I’m feeling happier for the publication than for myself.”

Schaap was one of the nine former and current Student Voice staff members who won an award and scholarship at the annual Journalism Association of Community Colleges state conference in Burbank from March 17 to 19.

The conference held different on-the-spot competitions and professional workshops from Thursday afternoon to Saturday evening. According to Northern California Faculty Representative Judy House, 387 students and faculty from 32 California community colleges attended the conference this year.

Nikolas Samuels, multimedia editor, received second place for his work in the feature photo contest.

“There were a lot of good photos that were entered and I was surprised to find out that mine was one of the better ones,” Samuels said. “I have been working a lot on my photography the past year and winning that award is a nice validation of my efforts.”

Samuels and the other contestants traveled to Bob’s Big Boy Classic Car Show in Burbank to take photos of the show.

Besides Samuels, the following students won an honorable mention award for competing in their contests: Student Life editor Kayla Colon, Arts and Entertainment editor Casey Ahern, Opinion editor Leslie Kivett and contributing writer Bridget Fornaro.

Fornaro competed in the social media contest, which required contestants to live tweet a discussion panel titled “Reporting on the San Bernardino Shooting” and put together a story using different social media platforms on Storify.

“I can’t believe I won,” Fornaro said. “I’m so happy. I wish I could’ve done more contests but all is good!”

Fornaro was also the social media editor from last semester. Even though Fornaro didn’t enroll in the Student Voice this semester, she still contributed stories and regularly visits the newsroom because of her love for the newspaper.

In the editorial cartoon contest, Colon drew a cartoon about Just Communities, which is a non-profit organization working on improving access to education for children in the minority group. Colon said it was an honor to get recognized in a category she doesn’t typically participate in at the Student Voice.

“We go to Moorpark and we kind of see ourselves as these underdogs, so to be able to say we went up against news teams twice our size and came back with even an honorable mention feels great,” Colon said.

Ahern competed in the feature writing contest, which required contestants to write a story after listening to author and journalist Adam Skolnick talking about his book titled “One Breath: Freediving, Death, and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits.”

“It was cool to get something for that since that’s the style of writing I write and edit every day for A&E,” Ahern said. “But for me, honestly, I could care less if I won or not, it was just a really fun experience to get to know everybody more and the chocolate cake at the banquet dinner made the long days and late nights worthwhile.”

Kivett got recognized for his review on a series of one-act plays, after competing in the critical review contest.

“In the tiniest of ways it [the award] feels like vindication that I’m on the right track,” Kivett said. “But it’s also very telling that I can do better.”

Kivett felt the bulk of his learning didn’t come from attending panels or listening to speakers, but from observing his colleagues in action outside of the classroom as well as their dedication.

“The conference, above all else, gave me perspective on my life and what I want to do,” Kivett said. “Journalism is what I want to do. I saw it in my coworkers, I saw it in students from around the state and I saw it in myself.”

Frank Ralph, managing editor, received a $100 scholarship award from JACC.

“Winning the scholarship was fantastic and an unexpected surprise,” said Ralph. “I’m definitely glad I got it this year since I’m transferring in the fall.”

The publication also received an Online General Excellence award for having a current and relevant website this semester under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Agustin Garcia. Jessica Frantzides, broadcast editor, instilled the importance of having at least one story published once a day during her time as the editor-in-chief last semester.

“I had an amazing experience while working with my staff and especially [Agustin], who took over this semester,” Frantzides said. “He’s done a great job keeping the Student Voice current and relevant.”

Frantzides and Garcia both received an achievement award recognizing their leadership in running the newspaper.

“When I started back in the fall of 2014 the Student Voice has always been said to be like a second family and that is no different this semester,” Garcia said. “I am honored to have been given the chance to lead an extraordinary team of the best writers and editors I have seen at the Student Voice.”

Eleven Student Voice staff and a contributing writer attended the conference. In addition to the eight winners, Sports editor Nick Gurrola, News editor Son Ly, Photo editor Gabrielle Biasi and Staff writer Rochelle Leahy attended the conference.

“Although not everyone came out of the conference with an award, what matters the most to me was that they got to know each other outside of the newsroom and learn something new that they can hopefully take back to the Student Voice to make it better,” Garcia said. “That was basically the ultimate goal of this experience.”