CLC student newspaper brings home accolades

CLC's student newspaper, The Chronicle, won nine awards from the Illinois Community College Journalism Association, including editorial writer of the year.

Winners of the 2019 Awards for Excellence statewide competition were announced during a virtual conference on Facebook.

The Chronicle competes against student publications produced at the state's largest community colleges and professional journalists judge entries. Commentary was among the strongest categories for 2019 Chronicle staff members, who won four awards for their opinion writing, including two first-place winners.

In the last 12 years, The Chronicle has won 156 awards, including 40 first places, in the statewide contest.

Former managing editor Anastasia Gustafson won 2019 Illinois editorial writer of the year. The award assesses a body of work submitted by the student journalist. Gustafson's articles covered a range of topics and included her Sept. 2 "Community colleges are not getting enough respect"; her Oct. 14 "The student loan crisis, rich parents, and legacy admissions"; and her Feb. 5 "N.Y. abortion bill brings waves of horror and support."

"These are well-written and largely about issues a community college student would actually encounter," the judge said.

"Keeping it local and relevant to readers is key, and you succeeded in doing that with the one on college expenses and the one on benefits of community colleges."

Another first place for opinion writing went to former editor Sammie Wilkins in staff editorials for her March 5 "Students should vote for Trustees to have voice at CLC." She also won second place in sports features for her Feb. 18 "Five CLC women run the court against a conference."

Other award-winning student journalists include:

• Editor Arturo Ramirez won third place in news columns for his Sept. 30 "Politics can divide a classroom as well as a nation." He also won an honorable mention for news story of the year for his Nov. 25 "Students clash over free speech, claims of harassment."

• Former sports editor Jack Van Reck won an honorable mention in sports columns for his Oct. 14 "Students would cheer for a CLC football team."

• Graphic editor Hope Pham won first place in graphics for her March 18 illustration to accompany the "Midterms cause stress but mark end half of semester" article.

• News editor Zoe Rabin won second place in headline for the Sept. 30 "CLC maintenance engineer knows his bees from A to Z."

• Lynn Dahlstrom won third place in sports photos for her photo of Ryan Brouch in a photo essay for the April 8 edition.

The Chronicle continues to publish student journalism on a biweekly basis during the fall and spring semesters.