The 2009 Northern California Conference of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) took place Nov. 7 at San Jose State University.

Over a dozen Skyline journalism students and newspaper staff members attended to compete in a variety of journalism competitions as well as learn from and network with industry professionals.

There were representatives from over 20 Northern California community colleges, some coming from as far away as Shasta and Reedley.

Pulitzer Prize winner Matt Hufman was the keynote speaker and he delivered a moving and impassioned message to the assembled aspiring journalists.

“Doing journalism well will change you and it will change the world,” Hufman said. “Make it important to the people you serve. Make it important to the readers you serve.”

Humorous at times but with an underlying intensity, Hufman encouraged and dared the audience to embrace journalistic integrity in the new era of digital technology and social media.

“Journalism is as vital now as ever,” Hufman said. “The world doesn’t need more online journalists. The world needs more journalists online.”

Skyline student Katie Thi enjoyed the keynote speech.

“I thought it was very good. I just thought he was really inspiring,” Thi said.

The rest of the conference was filled with a variety of workshops with topics ranging from media law to blogging, editorial cartooning to sports reporting.

Journalism student Danielle Caldwell chose to go to a workshop titled “Why News Reporting is Still the Greatest Job in the World.”

“It had the best advice on how to not only survive in the business but also how to thrive and enjoy what you do,” said Caldwell.

Thi also learned a lot from the various workshops.

“The whole conference provided so much information,” said Thi. “There were so many different topics to choose from.”

“I thought the conference was really informative and a helpful tool for people who are either thinking about journalism or know that they’re going into that field,” said Caldwell. “I would go again.”

Skyline’s journalism advisor, Nancy Kaplan-Biegel, was this year’s conference chair.

“I think things went really smoothly this year,” Kaplan said. “I thought that we had a wide variety of speakers that students seemed respond positively to and I’ve gotten feedback from several speakers…they thought it was a really good experience meeting students and working with them.”

The next JACC event is the statewide convention which will occur April 8-10 in Los Angeles.

“I’m looking forward to the spring convention,” Kaplan-Biegel said. “Even if students don’t go on to be a journalist…I’ve seen it really impact them to the point of having it change their lives.”

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SIDEBAR:

Awards won at this year’s NorCal conference:

Mail-In: Online General Excellence, The Skyline View

Opinion Writing: First Place, Helen Tran

Copy Editing: Second Place, Helen Tran