Southwestern College’s student newspaper, The Sun, won an unprecedented eight national awards at the Society of Professional Journalists convention in Indianapolis, including five first place honors. This tops a year in which SWC swept every national college newspaper award by the four organizations that recognize journalism excellence across the United States.

   America’s oldest and most respected journalism organization, the SPJ bestowed National Mark of Excellence Awards on photographers Daniela Padilla, Diana Inocencio, Misael Virgen and Russell Scoffin as well as writers Sean M. Campbell, Lyndsay Winkley and the Sun’s editorial board. Campbell won three national writing awards, including first place honors for breaking news and sports. Padilla won first place for news photography and Scoffin took the top award for sports photography. The Sun editorial board earned first place for editorial writing.

   Six journalism students won SWC’s top honor, the Student of Distinction Award, this spring. The college selects its top 20 students based on academic achievement, leadership and contributions to the community.  

   Sun faculty adviser Max Branscomb said the newspaper is successful because his students are hard working, ethical and committed.

   “We are fortunate that our community keeps sending great students to this program,” Branscomb said. “My students amaze me with their dedication, creativity and energy.  I don’t think there are any students anywhere that work so hard. They inspire me to try to keep up!”

   Sun editor-in-chief Diana Inocencio said the newspaper is blessed with diversity and creativity.

   “We have the most diverse college newspaper in the United States and that gives us the strength of multiple life experiences and points of view,” she said. “The Sun honors different cultures, different styles and different ways of thinking. These differences contribute to the unique blend of people we have on our staff.”

   “That’s one thing I love about our program and our college,” said Branscomb. “Many of my students are bilingual and can work with equal comfort in the United States or Mexico. I’ve had students who have done both. We also have students working in the Filipino American media as well as Native American and African American publications.”

   Developing leaders is important to Branscomb, he said, and he professed pride in many of his former students who are giving back to society.

   “Not all of my journalism students are going to work in the news media,” he said. “I am really proud of my students who are college professors, high school teachers, doctors, police officers, artists, military officers, lawyers and filmmakers. Journalism is great training for so many different careers because the skills it takes to create a newspaper are highly transferable to other fields.”