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City College Journalism Claims 28 Awards at State Conference

Journalism students took home serious hardware at the Associated Collegiate Press conference, held this year at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco.

City College Journalism Claims 28 Awards at State Conference
The Guardsman staff poses with their winnings from the conference on March 7, 2026. (Franchon Smith/The Guardsman)

When the Associated Collegiate Press held its National College Media Conference in downtown San Francisco this year, America’s next generation of journalists took the rest of the week off. College journalism programs from across the country converged on the Hyatt Regency’s space-age architecture from March 5-7 to attend more than 150 workshops and sessions that made up the conference.

City College’s long-standing Journalism Department and student-led publication, The Guardsman, showed up and continued its tradition of raking in the recognition, bringing home 28 awards from the Journalism Association of Community Colleges and California College Media Association.

During workshops, top journalism professionals shared the experiences that led them to where they are, and offered inspiration to the industry newcomers growing tired of hearing that journalism is a dying trade. “I remember when television would be the death of print journalism,” one speaker sighed.

Guardsman photographer Bob Kinoshita shoots a photo at the State JACC Convention. Mar. 6 2026. (Karim Farahat/The Guardsman)

A jumble of hopeful futures stared back at the San Francisco Chronicle’s Editor-in-Chief Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, as he forecasted AI’s role in storytelling amidst the backdrop of the ever-changing media landscape. The Guardsman staff filtered through all day's sessions and swapped war stories from student newsrooms between keynote presentations.

Students also had the opportunity to shake hands with veteran reporters who were once, not that long ago, exactly where they were, working at their college newspapers.

“I hope that what I'm saying to you today can be the beginning of a collaboration, where you can write to me if you have more questions, or even suggest a way I could do something differently,” said Alex K. Fong, Creative Director at the San Francisco Chronicle, during his talk on web design elements for your mobile audience.

Students dipped out of presentations to crack open their laptops under the confounding geometry of the building’s main atrium. They kept the news going and hammered away at entries for the conference’s on-the-spot contests beneath cylindrical glass elevators that rose and fell without a sound.

Journalism students attend a keynote session at the conference while competing in on-the-spot competitions on March 5, 2026. (Franchon Smith

And finally, on Saturday, while the air sat still across the bay, members of JACC packed into a room, whooping and hollering over the awards dished out to the best of the bunch.

The City College Journalism Department continues to be recognized as one of the state's standout programs. Notably, the department was awarded General Excellence for all three of its publication arms: Etc. Magazine, The Guardsman print newspaper, and TheGuardsman.com.

The college’s winners of the annual JACC statewide and CCMA categories are as follows:

JACC State Publication Awards

JACC On-The-Spot Awards

  • Abby Sigler – First Place – Feature Writing
  • Tom Whitehead & Fran Smith – Honorable Mention – Team Feature

CCMA Awards

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