After a day of competing and attending workshops, the Student Voice staff brought home seven awards from the 2016 Journalism Association of Community Colleges SoCal Conference at Cerritos College on Oct. 29.

Each year, journalism students attend the Southern California conference where they are allowed the opportunity to compete in on-the-spot competitions, sit in on workshops and listen to various industry professionals speak.

Former Student Life editor of the Student Voice Kayla Colon won the first of many awards on Saturday, placing third in the Opinion category for her article entitled “Changing religious stigmas.” The win was unexpected, according to Colon.

“I was with a group of friends in the car and I screamed when I found out,” said Colon. “I had actually forgotten it was submitted, so it came to me as a complete shock. It was really exciting to get an award for an article I worked so hard on.”

Also bringing home an award was Willem Schep, Student Voice photography editor, who was presented with third place for his on-the-spot news photo. After being loaded onto a bus and driven to an electronic recycling event, the photographers were given an hour to take photos and an hour to edit and caption one. Schep felt the experience tested his abilities as a photojournalist, he said.

“It was a very good experience to compete with fellow photojournalists,” said Schep. “I learned new techniques and methods from the photographers competing with me and how to work fluidly as a team with a group of journalists.”

With each on-the-spot competition being only an hour to write a story or take a photo, the competitions allowed students to experience the pressures of working with deadlines, something that happens frequently in the journalism industry.

Elliott Keegan, Student Voice news editor, competed in the on-the-spot news writing contest where students covered the keynote presentation by Alice Walton, Los Angeles Times reporter. Walton spoke about what students can do to ensure they land their first job in the journalism industry. Keegan was awarded honorable mention in this category.

“It all happened pretty fast,” said Keegan. “Before I was ready, the proctors were saying we only had 15 minutes left. I had to scramble to finish and I honestly didn’t expect to win anything, so it felt pretty good to get an honorable mention.”

Another contest based off of the keynote speaker’s presentation was the on-the-spot opinion writing contest. Eric Caldwell, 23-year-old journalism major, attended JACC along with the Student Voice, and was able to take part in the contest where he received an honorable mention in the category.

“It was my first time attending JACC, so I had no idea what to expect,” said Caldwell. “I found the speakers insightful. The contest was stressful, but it was realistic to the pressure you will feel as a journalist.”

Both Casey Ahern, editor-in-chief, and Son Ly, broadcast editor, competed in the on-the-spot copy editing competition. Ahern was awarded an honorable mention and Ly was awarded fourth place.

“I was extremely honored to receive this award,” said Ly. “This award tells me I still have room for improvement, but that I am on the right path.”

The Student Voice also received an award for Online General Excellence for keeping the website current, relevant and grammatically correct. Ahern was proud of the skilled writers and editors who attended JACC on Saturday.

“I’m so proud of not only those who won an award, but everyone who attended and represented the Student Voice,” said Ahern. “I love the staff and am always amazed at the incredibly talented people that we’re so lucky to have on it.”