The Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) held their statewide awards ceremony on March 7, 2026. There, they bestowed six separate accolades to The Citizen for our reporting during the Fall 2025 semester.
- Multimedia Editor Desmond Meagley and Editor in Chief Eliot Faine won first place in the news category for their coverage of the first court appearance of Cedric Irving, Jr,, who allegedly shot the late athletic director John Beam at The Citizen’s home campus, Laney College in Oakland, CA.
- The staff of The Citizen were awarded fourth place in the opinion category for a piece jointly published by the newsroom documenting and defending our coverage of that shooting.
- Meagley also earned a meritorious award for an investigation documenting a fraudulent course that was offered at College of Alameda, and an honorable mention for a photo illustration that accompanied The Citizen’s coverage of the Peralta Community College District’s new security teams.
- Copy Editor Romi Bales won an honorable mention in the profile feature story category for a story highlighting College of Alameda’s SALAAM program, a learning community for Arab, Southwest Asian, and North African diasporic communities.
- Managing Editor Ivan Saravia was recognized with an honorable mention for breaking the news about the impending merger of Laney and Merritt Colleges.
The awards ceremony was hosted by the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) at their Spring 2026 conference at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco. The conference brought together collegiate journalists and advisers from newsrooms nationwide for panel discussions and networking opportunities.
This year’s JACC awards saw 112 community colleges statewide competing for placement in just 38 award categories. Patrick Schmiedt, Secretary and Treasurer for JACC and student media advisor at Citrus College, told a crowded room of students from nominated publications that it was “a very competitive year.”
Disclosure: Eleni Economides Gastis is the faculty advisor for The Citizen and co-president of the JACC. Gastis did not participate in judging awards submissions.
