Steve Ames Thousand Oaks resident Steve Ames, who taught college journalism and served as the faculty adviser to student publications for 38 years from 1971 to 2009, has received a College Media Advisers Lifetime Membership for his service to student media.

The award was given during the National College Media Convention on Oct. 26 to 30 in Orlando, Fla.

He was a contributing writer to The Acorn Newspapers from 1998 to 2009.

Ames joins 40 previous Lifetime Membership recipients and three others who received the honor at the convention.

The award was established by a bylaws revision in 1990. Lifetime Membership may be conferred by a majority vote of the CMA Board of Directors on individuals who are retiring, who have had active CMA membership status for at least 10 years and the board deems the person worthy of the honor.

From the time when Ames taught and advised the newspaper at Merced College and through his tenure at Pepperdine and California Lutheran universities in addition to several community colleges, Ames has worked with student newspapers, magazines and yearbooks. His students’ publications won many awards over the years at the state and national level.

Ames received a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1967 and a master’s degree in mass communication in 1977, both from San Jose State University, and a doctorate in higher education from Nova Southwestern University in 1977.

Besides presenting, Ames has also written articles published in College Media Review and papers presented at national conventions.

In 1985 he received the CMA Distinguished Newspaper Adviser award.

Ames has been a journalist for newspapers and magazines and an officer in the Community College Journalism Association for nearly 20 years, in addition to many other journalistic organizations.