October 29, 2026, Santa Rosa — The Oak Leaf, Santa Rosa Junior College’s student newspaper, earned 29 awards at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) Northern California Conference on Oct. 17 at San Francisco State University, including recognition for Online General Excellence.
The Oak Leaf received one of the conference’s highest scores in the Online General Excellence category, reclaiming recognition for its online publication. Students also earned 6 on-the-spot competition awards, plus 23 publication awards for work produced over the past year.
The awards included four first-place finishes and five meritorious awards, which recognize outstanding work without assigning a ranking, for enterprise news and multimedia journalism packages.
The conference brought together aspiring journalists from more than a dozen Northern California community colleges for workshops and competitions. The Oak Leaf brought 25 students, more than any other college. Its newsroom is the largest in Northern California and among the largest at community colleges statewide.
The conference awards add to a strong year of recognition for The Oak Leaf. Over the summer, the publication earned 20 awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA), including first-place awards for Best Podcast, Feature Photo, Wildfire Coverage and Column Writing, as well as a fourth-place award for Online General Excellence.
The Oak Leaf also received recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Western Region, which includes five states and several island nations. Its honors included a win for Best Personality Profile and finalist recognition for Best Affiliated Website and Best Use of Multimedia.
These awards recognize the work of SRJC student journalists across reporting, photography, multimedia storytelling, and digital publishing, as well as their commitment to informing the college community.
To read student reporting and explore the publication’s award-winning work, visit The Oak Leaf News and The Oak Leaf Magazine.
