The Gamut took newspaper sweepstakes, the award for the most amount of awards received per newspaper, at the Southern California Journalism Education Association (SCJEA) state media competition hosted on Apr. 6 at California State University Long Beach. This is The Gamut’s first-ever state title.

In addition to winning the state championship as a staff, individual writers achieved recognition: Managing editor Lavanya Shyamsundar, 1st place opinion-editorial; opinion-editorial editor Rachel Yoon, 2nd place opinion-editorial; lifestyle editor Zoharys Jaen, 7th place in critical review; arts & entertainment editor Haley Nguyen, 1st place feature writing; staff writer Mikaela Woo, 5th place sports writing; and staff artist Eva Kim, 6th place editorial cartoon.

“I’m proud that I was able to place at SCJEA as this was my first time competing at State. I did compete at OCJEA and got 10th place back in February, so it’s really exciting that I was able to improve at a higher level of the competition,” sophomore Eva Kim said.

Junior Haley Nguyen said that winning the award felt like a surprise to her.

“I wasn’t at all expecting to place, let alone first; I usually flop at write-offs, and I finished my article 20 minutes early. I didn’t even stay for the award ceremony. I was pretty happy, though, since it came as a total surprise and it made me feel better about not placing in other years,” Nguyen said.

Sophomore Nathan Perera said that writing critical reviews is something he really likes to do and that winning a top award shows his hard work put into writing and future goals.

“Review writing is really my passion. The fact that I was able to do so well at the event was really significant to me, solely because it helped me solidify my passion,” Perera said.

Proud and looking forward to next year’s competition season, The Gamut staff hope to enhance their awards portfolio in the future.