The accolades keep coming in for student journalists of The Mesa Press, the San Diego Mesa College student newspaper. On October 19, The Mesa Press earned at the 37th annual San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards, including top honors in the opinion/commentary category. The previous weekend, the journalists took home several awards at the annual Journalism Association of Community Colleges’ Southern California conference, on the campus of Cal State Fullerton.

    The newspaper staff earned five awards at the 2010 Journalism Association of Community Colleges’ Southern California conference, held at the campus of California State University, Fullerton on Oct. 15-16. The conference drew more than 300 students, teachers and professional journalists from all over Southern California.

    Current news editor Alec Fernandes of University City took home the award for second place in the on-the-spot Opinion Writing category, where he weighed the current media dilemma of print versus online. Fernandes is currently in his second semester on The Mesa Press staff.

    Former news editor Jennifer Karnan of Point Loma earned Honorable Mention in the mail-in Profile Feature competition, Karnan’s story was about the gender transition of Mesa College Communication Studies professor Katie Holton. Judges gave Karnan special praise for her selection of such an important topic.

    In addition, photographers Case Griffiths of La Jolla and Nicholas Santiago of National City out-dueled each other in the conference’s on-the-spot feature photography competition, earning second and third place honors, respectively. Santiago also earned honorable mention in the on-the-spot editorial cartoon competition. This marks the first time The Mesa Press has earned an editorial cartoon award at a JACC conference.

    The Mesa Press is advised by Janna Braun, associate professor of journalism, and is currently edited by Brook Dailey and Danny West. www.mesapress.com.