FULLERTON, CALIF.—Student journalists from Fullerton College took home nine first-place plaques and 36 additional awards in national and regional competitions with other community college journalism programs for work produced in the 2023-2024 academic year.
Inside Fullerton magazine won the prestigious Magazine Pacemaker Award from the Associated Collegiate Press, its third straight year as a Pacemaker winner. The newly established Hornet Media group–which includes The Hornet student news outlet, Inside Fullerton magazine and Hornet Radio–won a Multiplatform Pacemaker Award. In each of the competitions, only one other community college in the country earned a Pacemaker.
“It’s an incredible achievement to win a Pacemaker award and be among the best student publications in the nation three straight years in a row,” said Mikey Moran, editor-in-chief of Inside Fullerton. “The hours our staff puts into brainstorming pitches, headlines and design all become worth it for moments like this.”
The project that got the most accolades was the three-episode narrative podcast “Everybody’s Doing It.” It won first-place awards in the College Media Association Pinnacle Awards and Journalism Association of Community Colleges SoCal Regional Awards–competing with two-year schools—as well as a fourth-place for ACP’s Podcast of the Year award, beating out several four-year schools. The podcast tells the story of four young people who became creators on the website OnlyFans during the pandemic, contextualized with interviews from academic experts on the history of the porn wars and the labor of sex work.
The podcast was an interdisciplinary effort. It was reported, written and produced by journalism majors Mariana Escoto and Gerardo Chagolla, English major Julianne Le, and photography major Aaliyah Skipper, with additional audio editing by radio student Jenny Kim and an original score by music major Andy Van Driesen. It was funded by an Emerging Journalist Fellowship from California Humanities and recorded in Fullerton College’s radio program studios.
“Working on this podcast was a great experience. All of those days and evenings working tirelessly to get people to talk to us, writing the scripts, and trying to find a direction for the podcast paid off at the end,” said Escoto. “I’m grateful to have had a chance to shed light on something so important and present in this time and age.”
Other first-place wins include Bryan Chavez’s feature photo from the annual Kinder Caminata event, Jake Rhodes and Pedro Saravia’s breaking news coverage of the Faculty Senate’s initial vote on controversial new AA-GE requirements, Cesar Garcia’s sports action photo of basketball player Christian Watson, Melisa Skinder’s page design of a magazine story on romance novels, Irene Kang’s magazine contents page design, Rhodes and Quinn Cisneros’s curation of The Hornet’s sports page, and Skinder and Arianna Pastrana’s infographic on the political climate on campus.
While the student journalists were recognized for their writing, reporting and photography, the categories they earned the most awards in were design and multimedia—with entries such as a profile video and story on a local musician, a feature video on the 50-year anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons, a news video on the college’s new crime lab, social media reporting on the AA-GE requirement controversy, and a photo essay of a city track meet.
“We’ve developed partnerships with other programs at the college–including the art department, printing tech, music, photography, radio and cinema,” said Jessica Langlois, journalism department coordinator and adviser to The Hornet and Inside Fullerton. “Many students get hands-on training in these other departments, and we then teach them how to apply that to journalism in our courses. So these awards recognize those departments, as well.”
Former Hornet managing editor Sara Leon earned fifth place in the College Media Association’s annual Reporter of the Year competition, competing with other community college journalists. She also took home awards for her weekly Hornet newsletter and her profile of the Fullerton College engineering club that won a NASA competition.
“I never thought that I would be able to go from jumping into The Hornet with no experience in journalism whatsoever, to now leaving it having won fifth place against other community college students in the nation,” Leon said. “It is a humbling, yet prideful, experience to have won that award to say the least.”
The Fullerton College journalism program is the oldest collegiate journalism program in Orange County and one of the oldest in the state. The Hornet newspaper is currently a fully digital operation, publishing multiple stories weekly and garnering over 20,000 unique monthly views during the fall and spring semesters.
Inside Fullerton magazine is a glossy print and digital publication available in the blue newsstands on campus and at local businesses. The Winter 2024 issue is set to launch in December 2024.
Hornet Radio, formerly KBPK, has been broadcasting for over 50 years and produces a 24-hour digital stream of music, news and sports content, as well as live audio and video coverage of Fullerton College sports games, news and arts events.
Students who wish to join the staff of one of the student media outlets can register for JOUR 222: News Media Production, JOUR 132: Magazine Production, CRTV 145: Sports Broadcasting, or CRTV 129: Broadcast News.
Below is a complete list of student awards:
Associated Collegiate Press 2024 Pacemaker Awards:
Competing nationally with either two-year or four-year schools, depending on the category
WINNER – Two-year Magazine Pacemaker – Inside Fullerton
WINNER – Two-year Multiplatform Pacemaker – Hornet Media
FOURTH PLACE – Podcast of the Year – Mariana Escoto, Julianne Le, Aaliyah Skipper, Gerardo Chagolla
FIFTH PLACE – Reporter of the Year – Sara Leon
College Media Association 2024 Pinnacle Awards:
Competing nationally with two-year schools and, in some categories, competing with both two-years and four-year schools with under 3,000 enrollment
FIRST PLACE – Podcast – Mariana Escoto, Julianne Le, Aaliyah Skipper, Gerardo Chagolla
FIRST PLACE – Breaking News Story – Jake Rhodes & Pedro Saravia
FIRST PLACE – Hornet Sports Page – Quinn Cisneros & Jake Rhodes
FIRST PLACE – Sports Action Photo – Cesar Garcia
FIRST PLACE – Magazine Entertainment Spread – Melisa Skinder
FIRST PLACE – Best Magazine Contents Spread – Irene Kang
SECOND PLACE – Feature Magazine of the Year – Inside Fullerton
SECOND PLACE – Magazine Cover – Melisa Skinder, Arianna Pastrana, Mikey Moran
SECOND PLACE – Sports Action Photo – Nathan Bass
SECOND PLACE – Feature Photo – Danny Diaz-Lujan
SECOND PLACE – Multimedia News Story – Hornet Staff
SECOND PLACE – Profile – Sara Leon
SECOND PLACE – Sports Game Story – Jake Rhodes
SECOND PLACE – Best Headline – Mikey Moran
THIRD PLACE – Feature Photo – Bryan Chavez
THIRD PLACE – Feature Story – Marlin Tababan
THIRD PLACE – Best Feature/Entertainment Website Front Page – Mikey Moran
THIRD PLACE – Best News Website Front Page – Sara Leon & Jake Rhodes
THIRD PLACE – General Email Newsletter – Sara Leon
HONORABLE MENTION – Social Media Reporting – Natalia Fierro-Gomez
HONORABLE MENTION – Best Headline – Mariana Ramos
HONORABLE MENTION – Best Editorial Illustration – Eli Young & Xochitl Hood
Journalism Association of Community Colleges 2024 SoCal Publication Awards:
Competing with two-year schools in the Southern California region
FIRST PLACE – Podcast/Audio News – Julianne Le, Mariana Escoto, Aaliyah Skipper, Gerardo Chagolla
FIRST PLACE – Feature Photo – Bryan Chavez
FIRST PLACE – Informational Graphic – Melisa Skinder & Arianna Pastrana
SECOND PLACE – Magazine Design/Layout – Melisa Skinder
SECOND PLACE – News Photo – Nathan Bass
SECOND PLACE – Sports Feature Photo – Nathan Bass
THIRD PLACE – Magazine Cover – Melisa Skinder, Mikey Moran, Arianna Pastrana
THIRD PLACE – Magazine News Feature – Arianna Pastrana
FOURTH PLACE – Editorial Cartoon – Brandi Kim
FOURTH PLACE – Online Photo Essay – Nathan Bass
FOURTH PLACE – Video Hard News Reporting – Bryan Chavez
FOURTH PLACE – Video Soft News Reporting – Eli Young & Melanie White
HONORABLE MENTION – Sports Action Photo – Nathan Bass
HONORABLE MENTION – Feature Writing – Melanie White
HONORABLE MENTION – Magazine Photo – Danny Diaz-Lujan
HONORABLE MENTION – Podcast/Audio News – Quinn Cisneros & Jake Rhodes
MERITORIOUS AWARD – Multimedia Journalism Package – Sara Leon, Dylan Arreola, Quinn Cisneros, Pedro Saravia & Natalia Fierro-Gomez
MERITORIOUS AWARD – Multimedia Journalism Package – Maria Cruz & Natallia Fierro-Gomez
GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD – Online News Site – The Hornet
GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD – Magazine – Inside Fullerton
Journalism Association of Community Colleges 2024 SoCal On-the-Spot Competition:
Competing with attendees from two-year SoCal schools at Cal State Northridge conference on Oct. 19, 2024
THIRD PLACE – Opinion Writing – Madeline Rhea Sigur