Santa Monica College's student newspaper The Corsair won the top regional award for best all-around student newspaper, defeating Stanford University and El Camino College in the Society of Professional Journalists Region 11 competition.
The Corsair earned the Corbin Gwaltney Award for Best All-Around Student Newspaper in the large colleges category. The publication was also a finalist for Best Affiliated Web Site alongside Pepperdine University.
The student-run media outlet and its staff collected multiple honors this month, winning two regional Mark of Excellence awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and three California Journalism Awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
At the California Journalism Awards ceremony May 17 in Universal City, two Corsair photojournalists won awards. Photo editor Jake Crandall took first place in the News Photo category for documenting a firefighter battling the Bridge Fire. Rebecca Villagracia won third place for Feature Photo for photographing children making snow angels in confetti at the LA Dodgers' World Series victory parade and fourth place for Sports Action Photo for capturing a diving soccer kick.
The Corsair is a finalist in five categories for Los Angeles Press Club awards to be announced June 22, including Best College Newspaper and Best College News Website. Crandall and photojournalist Gregory Hawthorne are finalists for Best News Photo, while Crandall and photojournalist Caylo Seals are finalists for Best Feature Photo.
Managing editor Jenna Tibby is a finalist for Best TV or Stream Reporting for her video report "Criminal Justice Reform on the Ballot." Tibby, a film and television actress who discovered journalism through a multimedia storytelling class at SMC, has previously won awards for podcast stories, articles and video reports.
"The reason I wanted to be an actor was to tell people's stories. Journalism gives me the opportunity to do that," Tibby said. She plans to major in multimedia journalism and transfer to a college in California, New York or London.
Corsair alumni are also represented among LA Press Club finalists. Former editors Sasha Funes and Jackson Tammariello now serve as top editors at Cal State LA's University Times, which is a finalist for Best College News Website.
The Corsair publishes newspapers in spring and fall semesters and maintains online content at thecorsaironline.com. More information about SMC's journalism program is available at smc.edu/journalism.
Edited by SMDP Staff