2012 Education Reporting
New America Media and the California Education Policy Fund are pleased to announce this year’s 2012 Education Reporting for Youth Fellows. Selected from a statewide pool of applicants, our 6 fellows represent some of California’s most underrepresented areas and communities. Ranging in ages from 16 to 24, fellows will produce one story per month for 6 months as well as one blog entry per week on education-related issues, connecting hyper-local stories to the larger discussion revolving around California’s education system and related policies.
The 6-month fellowship runs from May to October and aims to foster both experience and passion in education reporting among young and aspiring journalists. It comes at a critical time as California considers further reductions to an education budget already reeling from massive cuts.
Each fellow will be assigned to work on a rotating basis with one of three NAM editors, who will provide editorial guidance, as well as direction in locating sources, tracking down data and connecting with core issues. The editors are:
Vivian Po — NAM Education Reporter/Chinese Media Monitor
Jacob Simas — NAM Editor/Youth Hub Coordinator
Peter Schurmann — NAM Editor/Korean Media Monitor
Funded by the California Education Policy Fund, the 2012 Education Reporting Fellowship for Youth Journalists will provide journalists with a $300 monthly stipend toward completion of their written projects. There will also be several training sessions conducted via teleconference in which experienced education reporters and experts will offer their insights on how to cover education-related topics.
Here is a list of the 2012 Education Reporting Youth Fellows:
Edgardo Cervano-Soto, 22, is a Richmond and San Pablo raised writer and film-maker. He is a regular reporter for the Richmond Pulse, and has participated in KPFA’s News Apprenticeship Program. In 2010 and in partnership with Proyecto Poderoso and CRLA, he created an oral history interview series of LGBTQ Latino farm workers in the Central Valley. Cervano-Soto believes in image, sound and text as informative avenues to empower community. Cervano-Soto graduated from Stanford University in 2011 and received a B.A degree in Urban Studies with a self-designed emphasis on immigrant communities and social incorporation. He lives in Richmond/San Pablo.
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Stephanie Espinoza, 23, is a youth reporter for New America Media’s youth-led publication South Kern Sol located in Lamont, CA. Her reporting has focused on health, education, and other issues important to residents of South Kern County. Espinoza grew up in the small agricultural community of Buttonwillow in Kern County. She is a recent graduate from California State University, Bakersfield with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and Spanish. While in college, she worked two years for the Educational Talent Search Program as an office assistant and peer advisor, where she helped students from disadvantaged backgrounds pursue higher education. She one day hopes to pursue a Master’s Degree in journalism.
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Stephanie Minasian, 25, began her journalism career in 2009, after graduating from California State University, Long Beach with a Bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in English literature. She immediately went to work as the lifestyles editor at the Amador Ledger-Dispatch newspaper in the foothills of Northern California. Minasian began covering education for the Ledger Dispatch, and closely followed the severe budget cuts and layoffs making a huge impact in the local school district. In 2011, she joined the editorial team at the Gazette Newspapers in Long Beach, where she continues to cover education in the state of California’s third largest school district..
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Ashleigh Oldland, 25, is a Colorado native who moved to the Golden State in January 2009 after graduating with a degree in new-editorial journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Before graduation, she worked as a reporter for the now-closed Rocky Mountain News and was named “Rookie of the Year” by the Colorado Society of Professional Journalists. In her new home of Long Beach, Ashleigh covered the education beat for more than a year before being promoted to her current position as editor and business beat writer for Gazette Newspapers. When not writing, she serves as the 2012-2013 Co-Chair for the Long Beach Junior League Kids in the Kitchen (an annual event meant to encourage youth to eat healthy and exercise) and volunteers regularly for the nonprofit Community Action Team. Additionally, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Taylor, and the couple’s rescued dog and cat.
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Sharee Lopez, 20, currently attends Long Beach City College, where she serves as president’s ambassador, helping to connect members of the campus community to school staff and administration. A native of Long Beach, Lopez comes from a mixed Mexican-Filipino heritage, and says her background is part of the inspiration beind her academic success. Besides attending college, Lopez also works two jobs to cover tuition and support her family. Her reporting interests involve the struggles that students of color face in academia and the ways in which they overcome them.
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John Oliver Santiago, 18, currently attends Long Beach City College, where he is majoring in Economics and Political Science. For the past year he has been a contributing writer to New America Media’s youth-hub Voicewaves, located in Central and Westside Long Beach. Santiago has previously written on the experiences of Asian American students and the DREAM Act. He has a special interest in highlighting the ways in which the ongoing economic turmoil and the debate surrounding immigration are impacting education in California.
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