The Fresno State Collegian staff won eight awards at the 2015 California College Media Association Awards Banquet held at the Sheraton Universal hotel in Hollywood on Feb. 28.

The banquet featured dozens of winners from across the state and a record turnout, with campuses varying from University California Berkeley, University California Los Angeles, Chico State, Cal State University Northridge, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Humboldt State University. As per the mission of the CCMAs, to honor excellence in journalism, the CCMAs was created to instill a unified voice representative of college news media, provide support and education, and foster, nurture and promote collegiate journalism.

Fresno State winners included senior political science major and editor-in-chief Jesse Franz, who won third place in two categories for best non-breaking news story and best infographic; second place to mass communication and journalism senior Troy Pope for best editorial on the Affordable Care Act;third place for best cartoon to senior Paul Vieira; third place to multimedia junior Darlene Wendels for best features photograph.

Other honorable mentions included senior Katie Eleneke for best photo illustration and best photo series and senior Martha Pinilla for best group promotion.

The Collegian competed against statewide newspapers in the daily category, including UC Berkeley, USC and UCLA, with other campus categories for weekly and non-weekly submissions.

Franz said that he was honored to be nominated in the award ceremony, and looks forward to the Collegian’s progress in the coming year.

“I’m proud to be a part of this team,” Franz said. “Every day, they put in long hours to fulfill a service for this campus. It’s great to see that hard work recognized and rewarded.”