“This is a statewide competition of student newspapers and the competition is stiff,” says Professor Marcy Burstiner, faculty adviser to The Lumberjack.
The publications were awarded for a number of stories, including:
• First and second-place awards for Best Magazine Story in the Osprey magazine went to Derek Lactaoen for “Sacrificing for the Sport,” (first place) and Aahron Sherman for “Level Infinite: Some Games Never End” (second place).
Read “Sacrificing for the Sport” and “Level Infinite: Some Games Never End” online (PDF) >>
• First place award for Best Photo Series went to The Lumberjack photographers Travis Turner, Satoshi Kondo and Preston Drake-Hillyard for their coverage of 4/20/2010 in Arcata's Redwood Park.
View the photo gallery online >>
• Second place award for Best Breaking News Story went to Zach St. George for “Administration Hands Down New Cuts.”
Read “Administration Hands Down New Cuts” online >>
• Third place award for Best Sports Story went to Grant Scott-Goforth for “The Art of Combat.”
Read “The Art of Combat” online >>
• Third place award for Best Editorial went to the The Lumberjack staff for “Lots of Dollars and No Sense.”
Read “Lots of Dollars and No Sense” online >>
• Third place award for Best Back to School Edition went to The Lumberjack staff for their Aug. 25, 2010 edition.
The CNPA equipment grant funded software upgrades, giving students access to Adobe CS5 applications such as Photoshop and InDesign.
According to the CNPA’s site, “these grant awards are intended specifically for the purchase of equipment to improve the production process at campus newspapers.”
In addition to the latest awards, several students in the program have been accepted into high profile journalism graduate programs.
“Next year we will have three recent grads attending the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism,” says Burstiner. “And Matt Drange, who graduates in May, just got accepted into the Columbia Journalism School as part of their prestigious investigative reporting program—only 15 people are accepted each year.”
“It’s awesome to know that people I’ve worked with for the past three or four years are going to the top,” says Melissa Hutsell, editor-in-chief of The Lumberjack. “I feel like this department prepares us—and prepares us well—in all aspects of the field of journalism.”
Currently, The Lumberjack is vying for top honors in the category of Best All Around Non-Daily Newspaper in the multi-state Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Mark of Excellence Award competition.
The Lumberjack is also competing for first- or second-place in the General Excellence category of the CNPA’s Better Newspapers Contest.
“We are really proud of the to be nominated for this award because it is judged on three consecutive issues and it is really hard for a student publication to produce three excellent issues in a row,” Burstiner says. “This is the first time since I've been here that we have placed in the general excellence category in that contest. We find out the results April 29 for the SPJ and April 16 for the CNPA.”
Burstiner was also recently honored as Journalism Educator of the Year in the Four-Year University Division by the California Journalism Education Coalition at the annual convention of the California College Media.