A select few Cuestonians went from sitting behind their desks to standing on stage at the Associated College Press and Journalism Association of Community Colleges Conference, March 5-7, 2026, in San Francisco at the Hyatt Regency Convention Center.
The ACP/JACC conference is held annually, with a different host location each year. The conference represents over 100 colleges and universities nationwide, including institutions such as Texas A&M, Arizona State, the University of Southern California and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Registration numbers indicate over 1,095 attendees, including students from around 40 community colleges and 65 universities.
The Cuestonian received both state and national honors at the conference. The Cuestonian placed 10th in the national Best in Show category among two-year college online news outlets. The accomplishment of performing so well was not lost on Cuestonian reporter Kate Johnson. “Being included in the ACP rankings for best website was such an exciting experience, because it’s national,” she said. “We may not have received first place or have been the best or the biggest newspaper that was there at the awards, but it was amazing to see proof right before our eyes that our work makes a difference.”
For the state-level awards, Editor-in-Chief Casey Lieberman won second place in the on-the-spot feature article writing competition. Her story focused on the challenges students with disabilities face in the journalistic field. The Cuestonian reporters felt that it was a group victory as “the joy was contagious when we found out Casey placed second in the on-the-spot feature contest, and everyone was so, so happy for her,” Johnson remarked.
For Lieberman, receiving the award was an affirmation of her choice to pursue a career in journalism. “Making it onto the podium for the JACC on-the-spot competition was a really special moment for me,” she said. “Receiving recognition for a piece that feels so close to the kind of writing I want to do is allowing me to keep stepping into my own unique expression as a student journalist with more confidence.”
Multimedia Editor Michaela Mastache received an additional state honorable mention for her opinion piece on the Charlie Kirk assassination. Furthermore, an honorable mention was awarded to Lindsay McKee, a former Multimedia editor at the Cuestonian, for her opinion piece about U.S. senators visiting Cuesta. McKee is now a podcast editor for KCPR-FM and a student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
“It is important for our Cuestonian students to be immersed in the excellence that is this conference,” Cuestonian Faculty Adviser Jeremy Shermak said. “We put ourselves on the map today, and I’m very excited about where we go from here. We are just hitting our stride.”
The Cuestonian team looks forward to increasing the quality and quantity of news reports and to creating a stronger online media presence, so that The Cuestonian can go into next year’s Spring National College Media Conference in La Jolla with confidence.
“I feel reinvigorated, and I was reminded of the honor of being a part of a community that, at its best, is working to offer a microphone and light to people who really need to be heard,” Lieberman said. “Student journalists are the future, and we must take that torch and carry it with thoughtfulness.”
