successful showing at the ACP conference

By MOHAMMAD NAJIMI Staff Writer

The Los Medanos College

Experience racked up a total of eight awards announced at the annual Associated Collegiate Press Spring National College Media Conference that took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at Embarcadero in San Francisco. Awards consisted of two firstplace, one third place and one fourth-place awards, among others. The Experience staff also won in General Excellence for the print edition of the paper.

The awards were distributed on the final day of the conference that featured three different keynote speakers on each day: Rick Green, the executive editor and chief content officer of the Press Democrat, Odette Alcazaren-Keeley, the director of the Maynard 200 journalism fellowship program of the May- nard Institute for Journalism Education and Elizabeth Smith, the director of Pepperdine Graphic Media at Pepperdine University. There were also many different activities for attendees to participate in, including workshops, round-tables, and both on and off-site contests.

Juan Cebreiros, current editor-in-chief of the paper, and Michael Benedian, former editor-in-chief of the paper, both won a meritorious award for enterprise news story coverage of an audio recording leaked on social media that contained what was described as insensitive

Mojdah Mehdizadeh will debrief with the Presidential Hiring Committee to decide on which interviewee is chosen to be the next LMC president on May 18.

Once that decision is voted on, contract length and compensation level for the president will soon be discussed.

The committee has 12 main characteristics they are looking for in the screening and interviewing process for choosing LMC’s next president. A few qualities the committee wants the future LMC President to have are the ability to see the value in diversity, the courage to guide their students and faculty through difficult times, and the ability to lead both collaboratively and effectively, with the capability to embrace the mission of Los Medanos College. remarks by a college manager about Black people. “It’s just an honor to win something that prestigious and get that level of credit for something myself and the whole staff worked so hard on,” said Cebreiros. Michael Benedian also won

“The ideal characteristics were developed in collaboration with the college council, so they articulate our collective thoughts,” said Mehdizadeh.

For now, time remains until the future LMC president is hired, but the process is on a steady track.

See JACC, page 7