Three weeks after celebrating its centennial, the Fullerton College newspaper, The Hornet, kept its streak of success going, as its staff won several individual and conjunct recognitions based on stories published last spring semester. The awards were given out at the Fall National College Media Convention that ran from Oct. 29- Nov. 2 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Working with a small staff of four writers and four editors in Spring 2023, The Hornet took home many awards between multiple college news organizations, such as first place in News Website Front Page, second place in News Website of the Year and finalist for Pacemaker in Online News amongst other honorable individual mentions.
In comparison to other college media outlets in the country, The Hornet won awards in categories where its competition had much larger staffs and more financial resources.
Current editor-in-chief and former sports desk editor Jake Rhodes won first place for best sports multimedia story, honorable mention for best sports game story and honorable mention for sports web section. He said that the recognition was amazing but expected because of the hard work he and his staffers put in last semester.
“I was, first, humbled. Second, thankful. And, third, proud. Proud of our team,” said Rhodes. “You don’t win any of these awards alone. It is all a group effort.”
Adviser of The Hornet Jessica Langlois said that it was credit to the staff’s cohesiveness from last spring that made it possible for The Hornet to win these awards.
“I am not surprised they won all these awards; they had been working really hard. This is definitely one of the most cohesive staffs and obviously a lot of these awards were from last semester,” said Langlois.
However, Langlois said that it is not always easy for a newspaper to cover everything, especially with a small staff. She said it was impressive how The Hornet showed out, garnering plenty of national attention with a small staff.
“An obstacle is always having enough staffers to cover everything, and I think one way they overcame it was covering what’s important, figuring out what to put their energy into. So, anything they do is high quality as opposed to doing something halfway,” said Langlois.
By his first semester as an editor, Rhodes said he was fortunate to have good writers who produced quality content and were able to expand the sports coverage for the semester.
“I had two great writers,” said Rhodes. “I think we were just really fortunate that we had good content and we had a ton of product on our desk. That put us in the position to win.”
The Hornet received these national recognitions by The College Media Association (CMA) and The Associated College Press (ACP). They compete with either two-year institutions or also with four-year institutions depending on the category of the award. For some of those, only the schools who were present at the convention could compete.
The Hornet and Inside Fullerton Magazine also received several recognitions from The Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) in its Southern California regional convention on Saturday Oct. 21, at California State University, Northridge.
Langlois said that winning these awards has brought prestige to the college and to its journalism program. She said that these recognitions will also assure the longevity of The Hornet.
“We have been here for 100 years, and we want to stay here. We want to keep having The Hornet,” said Langlois.
List of awards won by The Hornet
Associated Collegiate Press
SECOND PLACE – Best in Show – Two-year website – The Hornet (competing with two-year schools present at the Fall 2023 Atlanta convention)
HONORABLE MENTION – Reporter of the Year, two-year college – Gerardo Chagolla
College Media Association
FIRST PLACE – News Website Front Page – The Hornet
FIRST PLACE – Sports Multimedia Story – Jake Rhodes, Gerardo Chagolla, Yasmin Sotelo, Quinn Cisneros
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, Dana Rose Crystal
SECOND PLACE – General News Story – Gerardo Chagolla
SECOND PLACE – Photo Package – Yasmin Sotelo
SECOND PLACE – Sports Investigative Story – Jake Rhodes, Pedro Saravia, Quinn Cisneros
THIRD PLACE – Three-minute News Video – Bryan Chavez
HONORABLE MENTION – Breaking News Coverage of Diversity – Guadalupe Gonzalez
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
FIRST PLACE – Online Photo Essay, Yasmin Sotelo
SECOND PLACE – Video Journalism, Bryan Chavez
FOURTH PLACE – Sports Feature Photo, Yasmin Sotelo
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
