Student newspaper wins award for revamped website

NORWALK – Cerritos College's Talon Marks newspaper team recently won the best two-year college news website award at the annual Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) Spring National College Media Conference in San Francisco, capturing the honor for two years in a row. 

The event was attended by more than 750 students and faculty from community colleges and universities throughout California. 

The Talon Marks team competed with 1,200 community colleges and universities from all over the state.

The Talon Marks team redesigned the entire website layout and overhauled its social media, according to Samuel Chacko, editor-in-chief of Talon Marks. 

“I spent countless hours thinking of ideas and implementing Sports Center, an idea that no other community college has done. Inputting data including the scores, rosters, players, etc. was a ton of work. Without the tireless work of the staff for the past two years, none of this will be possible. Everyone participated in making this website look great,” said Chacko, who is transferring to Cal State Long Beach to pursue a bachelor’s degree in journalism this fall.

The $20,000 grant the college received from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) to foster diverse voices in the college’s journalism program in 2022 allowed journalism students to attend the conference. 

The Cerritos College student journalists’ conference experience was featured on GoldenGlobes.com.

"Thanks to funds from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, we were able to take 16 journalism students to San Francisco to learn from the industry's best -- and they took full advantage of the opportunity,” said Christian Brown, professor of journalism and mass communications department chair at Cerritos College. "For many of them, it was their first time out of Southern California, and they took away valuable lessons on student media laws, digital storytelling skills, and how to get a job once they graduate. ACP was such an amazing networking and learning experience for our students with media professionals on-site to inspire our students to grow as content creators.”

Cerritos College has a long-standing relationship with the HFPA. From 2015 to 2017, the Cerritos College Culinary Arts students assisted with the Golden Globe Awards dinner at the Beverly Hilton for three years in a row.