The Journalists of Color program is entering its second year with 14 students now in the program, which aims to improve diversity in newsrooms throughout the San Joaquin Valley.

“Not many people get to start working on their future careers until after receiving a college degree. I am getting paid to learn and work in the field I hope to pursue professionally one day,” said Jazmin Alvarado, a first-year journalism major at Fresno State.

The program is a four to five year fellowship that offers high school seniors and first-year college students in journalism programs at Fresno City College and Fresno State training and support in pursuit of a journalism career.

The program runs from October to June, and students are paid $300 monthly while publishing articles and multimedia news projects through The kNOw Youth Media, a program that started in 2006 to help develop young journalists’ skills “to tell their stories and the stories of their communities,” according to its website.

The Institute for Media and Public Trust at Fresno State created this program in partnership with the Youth Leadership Institute (YLI); the journalism program at Fresno City College; and the Fresno State Department of Media, Communications and Journalism (MCJ).

“We believe San Joaquin Valley newsrooms must be more diverse if local media outlets are going to tell the full stories of their communities,” said Jim Boren, executive director of the Institute for Media and Public Trust at Fresno State, to Fresno State News. 

Alvarado, who joined the Journalists of Color program in September 2021 after learning about it while attending Fresno High School, said having the opportunity to do “hands-on work so early on” is one of the most rewarding aspects of the program.

Gloria Yanette Flores, a second-year criminology major and journalism minor at Fresno State, also joined the program in September 2021. Flores learned of the program from her brother, who was informed about it by his professor, Matthew Jendian.

Flores said the opportunity to work toward a future where people of color are “adequately represented within journalism” sparked her interest in the program.

The Journalists of Color program was developed in 2021 after noticing a need for more journalists of color covering issues and topics within their communities, according to Johnsen Del Rosario, program manager of The kNOw Youth Media. 

“You know, we’ve noticed that there aren’t a lot of journalists of color representing the communities that they’re reporting on, and Jim [Boren] noticed that too, and he kind of wanted to change that,” Del Rosario said. 

Del Rosario, alongside kNOw Youth Media Program Coordinator Daniel Gonzales, help guide and train members of the Journalists of Color program with a goal for students to find careers at newsrooms throughout the Central Valley.

Through this program, Flores said she hopes opportunities like the Journalists of Color program can help.

“In terms of diversity within newsrooms, I hope to see Journalists of Color assist in expanding beyond the barriers and creating an environment where underrepresented minorities have the opportunity to voice their thoughts, opinions and experiences,” she said.

Alvarado said she hopes to see more diversity within newsrooms through programs like these.

“I hope that one day newsrooms can be full of all different kinds of people. It would be amazing to see everyone working together without one group of people as the majority,” she said.