City College Press Club

The Department of Journalism sponsors a student club comprised of student journalists in the program. The club is affiliated with the Associated Students and is a member of the campus Inter Club Council (ICC).

The City College Press Club serves as a resource for journalism students by providing them opportunities to participate in club sponsored media career days, guest lectures by media professionals, field trips to journalism conferences, and social events.

This is a student run organization with a faculty adviser. It receives funding for club activities from the ICC.

Membership is open to all students in the Department of Journalism, most of whom come from the staff of the campus newspaper The Guardsman and the campus magazine etc.

The Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) is an association of California and Arizona community college journalism programs designed to provide continuing education for journalism instructors and extended educational opportunities for journalism students.

Since 1955, the Journalism Association of Community Colleges has linked community college journalism programs by serving as a clearinghouse of ideas, a student and faculty conference provider, and a standards setter. JACC is dedicated to the improvement of journalism education.

Membership is by the college program. California and Arizona community college journalism programs can join by paying dues each year. Four year journalism programs and other journalism associations with legitimate interests can also join as associate members.

Not all community colleges have journalism programs. Membership in JACC represents most of those who do. Membership runs between 60 and 70 schools each year. City College's Department of Journalism has been a members since 1995.

JACC is involved in various areas of helping improve journalism education in the community colleges, but its main activities revolve around the number of conferences it hosts throughout the year. Each fall the organization hosts Southern Region and Northern Region conferences. In February, it hosts a faculty only conference in Morro Bay, and each spring it hosts its annual convention in Fresno. The regional conferences and annual convention focus on extended opportunities for students through workshops and writing, photography and editing competitions.

In addition, JACC serves journalism education in a number of ways, including scholarships for outstanding community college journalism students, an annual snapshot survey of California and Arizona community college programs, a survival manual for student publication advisers, a proposed policy manual for student publications, and more. Be sure to check the Documents section for some of these publications.

The organization is governed by an elected Executive Board that meets four of five times a year. It is composed equally of faculty and students. Faculty officers are elected for two-year terms and students, who by their nature as community college students are more transient, are elected for one year terms. Terms run from annual conference to annual conference.

The regional faculty officers are elected by faculty at the regional conferences. The state president is elected by faculty at the annual convention. Student officers are elected by students at the annual convention.

In addition, the organization has a staff of three faculty advisers who provide special services to the organization on a day to day basis. The secretary and the online director are appointed to three-year terms, while the conference chair is appointed on an annual basis.

The Department of Journalism at City College of San Francisco has a mentoring program that compliments the journalistic training students receive in the classroom. This three year program is co-sponsored by the Center for the Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University.

The mentoring program consists of linking 10 City College journalism students with professional writers and photographers who work in the Bay Area. At the beginning of each semester, Department faculty select students for participation in the mentoring program. To be considered as a candidate for the mentoring program, students must file an application with the Department that is available upon request.

Students are expected to meet once a week for at least one hour with a mentor to review class assignments already graded by the instructor. The mentor will focus on weaknesses found in the assignments and provide tips for improving the quality of the student's work.

The mentoring is a semester long activity that includes periodic one on one contact with the student coordinator of the program, an advanced journalism student from San Francisco State University. These meetings help to answer questions raised by students involved in the mentoring program and to assess their progress. The instructor will also assess whether student performance in the classroom has improved as a result of the mentoring activity.

NorCal is the northern sector of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges.

NorCal hosts a one day conference held each fall for community college journalism programs. The conference features writing, editing, graphic and photography contests and is rich in workshops.

Most of the newspaper categories of JACC's annual conference are also included as NorCal contests and there are a limited number of on-the-spot contests. A strong emphasis is given to workshops at the NorCal conference.

While the conference has been held at San Jose State University for past few years, the future conferences will be held at San Francisco State University.