Students who are on the staff of the Pirates' Log or contributed to this student newspaper of Modesto Junior College, have won five awards from the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) of Northern California. The awards were announced on Saturday, November 7, during the annual JACC Norcal Conference held at California State University, San Jose.

Current Pirates Log reporter Paul Guererro won the top prize for "Tweeting the Conference" via Twitter. This was the first time this category of prize was offered by the JACC Norcal. MJC students also won prizes in the mail-in competition for journalism work published in the Spring 2009 semester, including 1st Place for Opinion Writing won by Zack Sherzad, who graduated Spring 09; 3rd Place in Feature Photo for Rena Flores, last year's Pirates' Log photo editor, and Honorable Mentions for the team of Jodi Dumlao, Alyssa Hawkinson and Nathan Norbeck for their full-page photo essay on the Amgen Tour of California bicycle race stage finish in Modesto last February. Alyssa Hawkinson, a Pirates' Log contributor from Al Golub's Photo Journalism class at MJC, also won an Honorable Mention in the Sports Action Photo category.

The JACC is a voluntary organization of journalism programs in the western United States, providing extended educational opportunities to community college students of journalism and continuing education for journalism instructors.

For more information on the JACC awards or MJC's journalism program, contact Laura Paull, Pirates' Log advisor and professor of Journalism, Film and Mass Media, at paulll@mjc.edu or call 575-6224.