By Athena Skapinakis
Senior Reporter
The Runner staff celebrated a successful weekend at the 31st annual National College Journalism Convention held in Los Angeles, Calif. Feb. 26-March 1. Their team was able to boast two California College Media Association Awards as well as three National College Journalism Convention Best of Show Awards presented by the Associated Collegiate Press in the following categories: Best News Series, Best Breaking News Story, Newspaper Special Edition, Website Small School and Four-Year Weekly.
Senior Reporter Steven Barker and Opinion Editor Robin Gracia were granted Honorable Mention for Best News Series for their coverage of a student death by suicide and seeking help for depression.
“It was an honor and a privilege to be nominated,” said Gracia. Her article documented the tragic loss of student Los Ortiz from death by suicide and the candlelight event held in honor to celebrate his life.
Barker wrote an editorial urging students to proactively seek help if they were suffering from depression. Another story he wrote discussed how widespread depression is amongst college students, outlining statistics and debunking myths.
“We took the depression theme and turned it into a news series,” said Barker.
He also won second place in Best Breaking News Story for his coverage of Vice President Joe Biden’s visit at CSU Bakersfield’s campus. He wrote about the event and the other candidates Biden was supporting as well as the “towering line of students” who came to see the vice president speak.
According to Managing Editor Joshua Bennett, The Runner team was “proud” to receive second place for their 40th Anniversary Special Edition Issue released Feb. 18, 2015. He said that the team has been trying to rebuild the paper and bring its quality up to a higher standard.
“Even though it’s a special edition, it’s really cool to have something that we worked really hard on to be recognized,” said Bennett. “I’m like a proud parent.”
Bennett explained that the team has been trying to rebuild the paper for some time and that second place was nothing to be ashamed over because The Runner was able to contend with top schools. The competition was tough with The Runner going against established and reputable student newspapers such as the top entry’s UC Riverside. The Runner was able to beat out Lane Community College’s The Torch, Cal Poly’s Mustang Daily and Green River Community College’s The Current.
“It was an honor to be able to do the layout for that issue for 40 years of The Runner and to bring all that history into one issue,” said Esteban Ramirez, the sports editor. “To see it all come together was really great.”
Earning eighth place for Website Small School made Web Editor Cassie Sandrini smile.
“I think that it’s an impressive award considering how our website is so new,” said Sandrini. “It shows how much work and time and effort every person on this staff has put into it.”
The Runner was able to place over schools such as Loyola Marymount University and Suffolk University. The judge’s comments were, “Timeliness matters. Month-old material at top of website or social media is a turn-off. Quality of visuals–still/video–matters. Quality of reporting matters and is key to a successful web presence. Use social media.”
Receiving another eighth place win, The Runner trumped over CSU Chico’s The Orion and CSU Northridge’s Daily Sundial for Four-Year Weekly. To place above such nationally-recognized journalism programs from two esteemed schools was a huge victory for The Runner.
Adviser Jennifer Burger has been The Runner staff’s mentor for the past two years. During those two years she said that she has witnessed the quality of the print and online product go up. Being able to compete with larger journalism programs has pushed The Runner into a higher tier of quality news reporting. The Runner is now a prime contender not only in the state but across the nation.
Out of 143 entries, The Runner made its mark as an up and coming student newspaper, holding its own against notable campuses with reputable journalism programs.
“I am really proud of The Runner staff for the five awards that they’ve won this weekend,” said Burger. “It validates all of the hard work that everybody has put in for the student newspaper and the website.”
Burger has many future expectations for the staff. She hopes for first place.
“I know that we as a team are able to showcase a wider variety of work, not just in our news writing, not just in our website, not just in our special edition, but being able to raise the quality and be recognized for all of the hard work that goes into the paper – from writing to photography, to videos, to multimedia and all of the other components that go into our media,” said Burger.
