Student journalists from Inside Fullerton student magazine beat out elite universities including Harvard and UCLA when they took home first place national awards in best magazine cover and best magazine illustration at the college media convention in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 31, 2023. This is the second year in a row Inside Fullerton has won this first place national award for magazine cover. The Hornet student news outlet also scored first place wins for best sports multimedia story and best news website front page in competitions with other two-year colleges around the country. In total, The Hornet and Inside Fullerton racked up 25 national awards from the Associated Collegiate Press and College Media Association for work published in the 2022-2023 academic year.
Inside Fullerton also won the prestigious Multiplatform Pacemaker Award from Associated Collegiate Press, which recognizes publications that produce content across multiple platforms–print, web, video, audio and social media. The Hornet was a finalist for the Online Pacemaker and Inside Fullerton was a finalist for the Magazine Pacemaker. Each publication also took home a second place “Best in Show” award for print magazine and news website in which they competed with other two-year publications present at the conference, which drew approximately 800 attendees, according to ACP.
The students and publications won additional awards in design, newswriting, sportswriting, feature writing, investigative reporting, diversity coverage, video, photography, headline-writing and web layout/. In several categories, these student journalists were in competition with four-year universities and colleges as well other two-year colleges.
Student media adviser and journalism professor Jessica Langlois accompanied Hornet editor-in-chief Jake Rhodes, Hornet sports editor Quinn Cisneros, Inside Fullerton editor-in-chief Mariana Ramos and Inside Fullerton managing editor Mikey Moran, all of whom won individual categories for their writing and reporting.
Ramos, who is in her final semester on the magazine, shared the first place magazine cover design award for the conceptual design she created with former EIC Ian Winstanley and former creative director Jett Shim for her cover story, “The Trials of Critical Race Theory.” Winstanley and Shim also shared the first place award for illustration, for the story “The JuCo Struggle,” and Shim won an additional first place award for magazine spread–bringing his national award total to four.
Rhodes and Cisneros, who will be returning as editors on The Hornet in Spring 2023, shared a first place award with Hornet photographer Yasmin Sotelo and former EIC Gerardo Chagolla for their multimedia package covering the Hornets’ men’s basketball team’s state championship, which included a interview newscast, written story and photography.
The College Media Convention is a biannual event hosted by The Associated Collegiate Press and the College Media Association, two leading college media organizations in the country.
In addition to these national recognitions, The Hornet and Inside Fullerton magazine won 22 awards for work published in the Spring 2023 semester in the annual Southern California regional competition of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges, which they attended at Cal State University, Northridge, on Oct. 21.
Among the awards were first place prizes in the following categories: Magazine News Feature for Mariana Ramos’s coverage of the debate over critical race theory in Orange County schools, Magazine Illustration for Jett Shim’s illustration accompanying an opinion story about the troubled use of the diabetes drug Ozempic for weight loss, and Online Photo Essay for Yasmin Sotelo’s photo series on a day in the life of Hornets softball player Allyson Fuentes.
Additionally, first-semester Hornet staffers Ronette Johnson and Guadalupe Gonzalez won awards in on-the-spot competitions at the JACC Socal conference on Oct. 21 in copy editing, feature photography and news writing, for which they only had a few hours to produce professional-quality, original content.
The Fullerton College journalism program is the oldest collegiate journalism program in Orange County and one of the oldest in the state. The Hornet student news outlet published its first newspaper in 1923, and, now fully digital and publishing daily online during the semester, The Hornet just hosted its centennial celebration on Oct. 11 and 12. Print copies of The Hornet’s centennial edition are available on campus.
Inside Fullerton magazine is a glossy print and digital publication distributed every semester by Fullerton College journalism students. Print copies are available in the blue newsstands on campus and at local businesses. The Fall 2023 issue is set to launch in December 2023.
Follow along with these student journalists on social media: @fchornet on X and Instagram, and @insidefullerton on Instagram, X and TikTok.
Below is a complete list of categories for which the students are finalists or award-winners:
Associated Collegiate Press 2023 Pacemaker Awards:
Competing nationally with either two-year or four-year schools, depending on the category
PACEMAKER WINNER – Multiplatform Pacemaker (two-year) – Inside Fullerton
FIRST PLACE – Magazine Cover (competing with four-year schools nationally) – Jett Shim, Ian Winstanley, Mariana Ramos
FIRST PLACE – Illustration (competing with four-year schools nationally) – Jett Shim, Ian Winstanley
SECOND PLACE – Best in Show – Two-year website – The Hornet (competing with two-year schools present at the Fall 2023 Atlanta convention)
SECOND PLACE – Best in Show – Two-year magazine – Inside Fullerton (competing with two-year schools present at the Fall 2023 Atlanta convention)
HONORABLE MENTION – Reporter of the Year, two-year college – Gerardo Chagolla
FINALIST – Magazine Pacemaker (two-year) – Ian Winstanley, Mariana Escoto, editors-in-chief
FINALIST- Website Pacemaker (two-year) – Gerardo Chagolla, Jake Rhodes, editors-in-chief
College Media Association 2023 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 – News Website Front Page – The Hornet
FIRST PLACE – Magazine Cover – Jett Shim, Ian Winstanley, Mariana Ramos
FIRST PLACE – Sports Multimedia Story – Jake Rhodes, Gerardo Chagolla, Yasmin Sotelo, Quinn Cisneros
FIRST PLACE & HONORABLE MENTION – Magazine Spread – Jett Shim, Magazine Spread – Jett Shim
SECOND PLACE – News Website of the Year (competing nationally with two-year colleges and four-year colleges with under 3,000 people) – Gerardo Chagolla, Sara Leon, Jake Rhodes
SECOND PLACE – Feature Magazine of the Year – Jett Shim, Ian Winstanley, Mariana Ramos
SECOND PLACE – General News Story – Gerardo Chagolla
SECOND PLACE – Photo Package – Yasmin Sotelo
SECOND PLACE – Profile – Mariana Ramos
SECOND PLACE – Sports Investigative Story – Jake Rhodes, Pedro Saravia, Quinn Cisneros
THIRD PLACE – Feature Story – Mariana Ramos
THIRD PLACE – Three-minute News Video – Bryan Chavez
HONORABLE MENTION – Best Headline – Mariana Ramos & Ian Winstanley
HONORABLE MENTION – Breaking News Coverage of Diversity – Guadalupe Gonzalez
HONORABLE MENTION – Feature Story – Mikey Moran
HONORABLE MENTION – General News Story – Gerardo Chagolla, Pedro Saravia
HONORABLE MENTION – Sports Game Story – Jake Rhodes
HONORABLE MENTION – Sports Web Section – Jake Rhodes
Journalism Association of Community Colleges 2023 SoCal Publication Awards:
Competing with two-year schools in the Southern California region
FIRST PLACE – Magazine News Feature, Mariana Ramos
FIRST PLACE – Magazine Illustration, Jett Shim
FIRST PLACE – Online Photo Essay, Yasmin Sotelo
SECOND PLACE – Photo Illustration, Logan Stupin & Jett Shim
SECOND PLACE – Video Journalism, Bryan Chavez
THIRD PLACE – Magazine Opinion Story, Denise Grande
THIRD PLACE – Magazine Profile, Olivia Peña
THIRD PLACE – Photo illustration, Jett Shim, Logan Stupin, Ian Winstanley
FOURTH PLACE – Magazine Photo Essay, Logan Stupin, Holden Remme, Jett Shim
FOURTH PLACE – Sports Feature Photo, Yasmin Sotelo
HONORABLE MENTION – Magazine Cover, Jett Shim, Mariana Ramos, Ian Winstanley
HONORABLE MENTION – Magazine Opinion Story, Olivia Peña
HONORABLE MENTION – Opinion Story, Dana Rose Crystal
HONORABLE MENTION – Podcast, Jake Rhodes, Sara Leon, Gerardo Chagolla, Pedro Saravia, Quinn Cisneros
HONORABLE MENTION – Profile Feature Story, Sara Leon
HONORABLE MENTION – Sports Feature Photo, Yasmin Sotelo
MERITORIOUS AWARD – Enterprise News Series, Jake Rhodes, Pedro Saravia, Quinn Cisneros
GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD – Online News Site, The Hornet
GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD – Magazine, Inside Fullerton
Journalism Association of Community Colleges 2023 SoCal On-the-Spot Competition:
Competing with attendees from two-year SoCal schools in day-of competitions
SECOND PLACE – Feature Photo, Ronette Johnson
THIRD PLACE – Newswriting, Guadalupe Gonzalez
HONORABLE MENTION – Copyediting, Guadalupe Gonzalez