The Latino Reporter is a news website sponsored by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists that features journalism produced by student members tasked with covering the organization and its annual conference. The Latino Reporter strives to cover the organization and issues relevant to its mission with fairness and accuracy in a live newsroom environment staffed by student journalists and professional mentors. The newsroom exercises editorial independence. Read more about our editorial guidelines here.
Meet our student journalists
Susan A. Barnett (she/her/ella) is a recent University of Arizona graduate with a master’s degree in bilingual journalism. Growing up in Tucson as the daughter of immigrant parents in a mixed-status family, Barnett remembers rarely seeing her lived experiences accurately reflected in news coverage. This motivated her to become a storyteller who focuses on local stories and immigrant communities.
Barnett is the co-founder of the Tucson Spotlight, a nonprofit news publication. She has been named a 2025–2026 Chips Quinn Fellow, one of just 10 early-career journalists selected nationwide.
Fluent in Spanish and English, Barnett works across digital and written platforms, but her long-term dream is to work in Spanish-language broadcasting. Barnett’s passion for local, and community-driven stories set her apart from many. She hopes to become the storyteller who delivers the news she always wished to see growing up.
— Morelys Urbano
Paul C. Fisher (he/his/él) has had his life defined by movement. He moved from Guatemala to Colorado to Knoxville; each place shaping his worldview and fueling his journalistic aspirations.
Now a rising senior at Newberry College, Fisher aspires to become a reporter who sheds light on adoption in the United States, offering comprehensive coverage of what he believes is an underreported topic. He hopes his reporting will not only inform but also help pass legislation, all while building his reputation as a reliable and trustworthy journalist.
Equipped with a profound passion for storytelling, Fisher wants to cover policy issues and bridge the gap between political institutions and underserved communities.
When he’s not working in the newsroom or reporting in the field, you can find Fisher hiking, exercising at the gym, golfing, or spending time with his family playing board games.
— Gian Marco Velasquez
Viviana Garcia (she/her/ella) is a recent graduate of California State University, Fullerton, where she earned a degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism.
While in college, she served as vice president of her university’s NAHJ student chapter.
Journalism has always been part of her life since she grew up watching Univision. An aspiring broadcast journalist, Garcia will begin graduate school at New York University this fall. She is fluent in both English and Spanish.
When she is not reporting, Garcia enjoys spending time with her family, caring for her cockatiels and going on coffee trips.
— Araceli Ramirez
Ashley Neyra (she/her/ella) turned to journalism as a way to help others. Neyra was born in Maryland to Peruvian parents. A journalism student with an emphasis on photography and visual journalism at the University of Maryland College Park, she expects to graduate in the fall of 2026.
She is a current Digital Futures Institute fellow at Montgomery Community Media and director of videography at La Voz Latina, where she has also served as a news and entertainment writer. A self-described people-lover, she enjoys working on profiles, culture stories and short-form social media videos.
As a child, Neyra learned about Peruvian culture and history watching National Geographic documentaries about the Incan empire. Now, her goal is to work for the media organization and continue to educate children about their own heritage.
In her free time, she enjoys going to the gym, running, and taking photos for fun. If she’s ever cutting it close on a deadline, you’ll probably find her stress-baking banana bread.
— Luisana Ortiz
Luisana Ortiz (she/her/ella) discovered her passion for journalism in high school, without even realizing it at the time.
In a class called Global Perspectives, she would do research on different topics and write essays about them. This process of inquiry, discovery, and storytelling sparked a new dream: to one day write for The New Yorker. Now an incoming senior at Syracuse University, Ortaz is pursuing a dual degree in journalism and data analytics.
Born and raised in Miami, Ortaz is Peruvian and Venezuelan. As a multi-hyphenate journalist, her writing interests remain wide-ranging, with a strong focus on profiling individuals and highlighting underrepresented cultures.
— Ashley Neyra
Wesley J. Pérez Vidal (he/him/él) is an award-winning bilingual journalist from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and an alumnus of the NBC Telemundo Academy. He was recently awarded the competitive Newhouse Foundation Fellowship in New York, which allows him to work as a reporter for Advance Media New York and obtain a master’s degree in Magazine, News, and Digital Journalism at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Beyond his university, Pérez Vidal has experience in reporting, anchoring, producing and editorial strategy while working with companies in Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico, the United States, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Within the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, he serves as co-chair of the National Collegiate Council, where he leads the brand-new NAHJ Spotlight Series and advocates for student journalism.
Pérez Vidal hopes to explore investigative and bilingual reporting through print and digital platforms. In his free time, he likes to lead Zumba classes and explore parks.
— Micah Sandy
Araceli Ramirez (she/her/ella) strives to center community at the heart of her coverage regardless of where the story unravels.
Her work at The Columbia Chronicle embedded tools to thrive in a fast paced newsroom while a radio program at The Yollocalli Arts Reach nurtured her creativity. The award winning youth initiative of The National Museum of Mexican Art brought the Mexican-American writer closer to her roots.
This blend of experiences shaped her interest in covering the realities of everyday life through her on the ground reporting. From protest to parades, Ramirez values the importance of human connection especially, in the small moments before interviewing a source.
As a recent Columbia Chicago College graduate, with a degree in journalism and a minor in creative writing, she looks to grow her visual storytelling skills as the industry evolves.You can also catch her on the dance floor or the tennis courts when she’s off the clock.
— Viviana García
Alana Rosario Sanchez (she/her/ella) is a recent graduate of Universidad de Puerto Rico en Arecibo, where she earned a Bachelor’s in Communications with a focus on news. Rosario Sanchez is passionate about community-based, social, and environmental stories, but she also occasionally covers the fashion industry.
Rosario Sanchez joined NAHJ in 2022 and served as vice president of her university chapter helping many students through events and informational sessions. At the student-run magazine “A Cuentagotas,” she worked as both an editor in chief and a reporter covering a different range of topics from cultural, fashion and social issues.
She is proud to have received an award from “Las Voces de Periodismo Awards,” where she won Best Video Story for her reporting on abandoned buildings in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and their impact on public health and security in the community. Rosario Sanchez also completed an internship with Telemundo Puerto Rico as a production assistant. Of all of her experiences her favorite was while at the magazine, but she plans to be a reporter in her home Puerto Rico.
— Oriana Torre
Micah Sandy (he/him/él) is a bilingual, multi-skilled, award-winning journalist from New York. He is currently in his final year at Northwestern University, where he studies journalism and political science with a minor in classics.
Although he did not initially enjoy his high school journalism class, his perspective shifted after joining his high school’s newspaper and university’s broadcast station.
Sandy has traveled to Washington, Colombia, Italy, Greece, Japan and other countries where he expanded his global perspective and strengthened his ability to report for diverse audiences.
He is currently completing an internship with CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and will begin his journalism residency in Argentina in the winter. Micah aspires to become a broadcast reporter and producer.
— Wesley J. Pérez Vidal
Oriana Torre (she/her/ella) was born in Venezuela, a country where she once believed becoming a journalist was impossible due to censorship. However, that experience helped her discover her true purpose.
She immigrated to the United States five years ago, and despite the challenges, she began pursuing an associate degree at a local college in Orlando, where she wrote the first article in Spanish in the history of the college newspaper.
Now, Torre is a bilingual journalism student at the University of Florida, specializing in Broadcast Journalism with a minor in Latin American Studies. She has embraced leadership roles, serving as vice president of the UF Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ). She is also the Executive Producer for the university’s Spanish-language broadcast news show.
This summer, she moved to Boston for an internship with NBC Telemundo Boston, where she has strengthened her skills in news production and reporting. In addition, she enjoys expressing her creativity through content creation for digital platforms and is passionate about covering topics related to politics, immigration, and community-based stories.
-— Alana Rosario Sánchez
Morelys Urbano (she/her/ella) is a multifaceted award-winning journalist, student, poet, public speaker and artist. Hailing from the Dominican Republic, Urbano spent three years in Spain before immigrating to the United States. Urbano has spent her youth advocating for immigration to be seen as a “Black issue,” highlighting her experience as an Afro-Latina immigrant.
Her passion for storytelling really developed pre-pandemic when she worked for a podcast highlighting small businesses. She saw how during the pandemic, the podcast developed from just highlighting small businesses, to addressing how they were dealing with the loss of business. The podcast helped many small businesses during the pandemic and Urbano saw how her work had an “actual impact” on her community, fueling her to pursue a career in journalism.
She graduated from Morgan State University with a Bachelor of Science in Multimedia Journalism and a minor in Latin American and Caribbean studies. During her time at Morgan, she founded UnafraidBear, the first organization for undocumented students in Maryland. She was recently a part of an Emmy-winning documentary team covering the history of her alma mater, Morgan State University.
Urbano’s dream is to work in Spanish-language broadcasting to advocate for her community and so that her mom can see her on TV.
— Susan Barnett
Gian Marco Velasquez (he/his/él) finds himself drawn to knowledge. He is always eager to learn new things, and that is part of what fuels his journalism passion. “For me, journalism is a way to empower myself and learn more, truly grow,” he says. “From there, I am able to inform others and truly help those that look like me.”
Velasquez is working towards earning a combined Bachelor’s in Journalism and Master’s in Laws in Media and Entertainment from the University of Southern California. His goal is to put complicated laws into easy-to-understand formats.
Velasquez grew up in San Francisco and is passionate about seeing more El Salvadorians in places of influence. He understands education is the first step and believes, “law allows you to understand your community more profoundly.”
He has served as Newswriting Intern, Assignment Desk Intern, and Investigative Unit Intern with Telemundo. He also serves as President of USC’s NAHJ Chapter, and is the editor/ anchor for USC Annenberg Media.
When he’s not busy editing a story, Velasquez loves to cook. Anything from ethnic Latin-American foods, to pizza, and even grilling steaks.
— Paul C. Fisher
Meet the mentors
Nicole Acevedo (she/her/ella) is the Spanish-language and bilingual news editor for the Latino Reporter. She first joined the Student Projects as a mentor in 2020 and served as co-director in 2024.
Acevedo is a bilingual national reporter at NBC News Digital, who has specialized in covering issues affecting Latino communities in the U.S., the Caribbean and Latin America for the past six years. She was a 2024 finalist for the NAHJ/University of Florida award in investigative journalism for her reporting uncovering the challenges Puerto Rican families face in caring for their elders, given that the island’s population is aging faster than most places on Earth and fragmented by migration.
In the past, Acevedo has published stories for MSNBC, Telemundo 47 and NPR’s Latino USA. Before joining NBC, she was part of the inaugural cohort of students at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s first Spanish-language bilingual journalism program. A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Acevedo left la isla over a decade ago to attend the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Follow her on X at @Nicolemarie_A.
Rafael Carranza (he/him/él) is the 2025 Student Project multimedia lead. He joined the NAHJ Student Projects as a mentor in 2021 and co-led in 2022 and 2023.
He credits the start of his journalism career to NAHJ. He is an alum of the 2006 Student Campus, the 2009 Latino Reporter and was an NAHJ Scholar. Carranza works at Arizona Luminaria as an investigative reporter.
Carranza has covered immigration and issues along the U.S.-Mexico border for the past 15 years. He also contributed to the 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning project “The Wall,” and earned a Rocky Mountain Emmy for his contributions.
He previously worked as a correspondent covering the Pope and the Vatican in Rome, and before that as a television reporter in south Texas. When he’s not reporting, you are likely to find him out hiking the mountains and canyons of the desert Southwest. Follow him on X at @RafaelCarranza.
Jason Gonzales (he/him/él) is a five-time co-director of the Latino Reporter and an alumnus of the 2010 NAHJ Student Project in Denver. He first joined the program as a mentor in 2014.
Gonzales is a higher education and legislative matters reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, a nonprofit newsroom that covers education across the country. Previously, he covered K-12 and higher education for The Tennessean in Nashville and Brunswick County for the Wilmington Star News.
He is an award-winning journalist. In 2023, his work on Colorado’s opportunities and challenges in higher education was a finalist for the Education Writers Association Eddie Prize. Jason is a 2018 Education Writers Association Reporting Fellow and 2020 Institute for Citizens and Scholars Higher Education Media fellow.
A Colorado native and resident of the Denver area, Gonzales graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder. You can find him on X at @ByJasonGonzales.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez (he/him/él) has been visuals lead for the Latino Reporter for 16 years, occasionally filling in as director.
He is an award-winning photo and multimedia journalist at the San Francisco Chronicle. He began his career in newspapers at the ripe age of 10, at his hometown paper, The Martinez News Gazette, where they were silly enough to give him a key to the building. His love of journalism developed there, choosing it as a career. In his 23 years at the Chronicle, he’s covered national and international assignments. Most notably he’s covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and worked extensively in Latin America, covering elections, natural disasters, economic policy and immigration — even crossing through desert in Northern Mexico with immigrants through smugglers’ camps. Other notable work includes short documentaries on a doctor providing care in the Ngorngoro Crater of Tanzania, and on a group working to eliminate child slavery in Nepal. A San Francisco Bay Area native, he spends his off time rebuilding a craftsman home he bought 12 years ago, designing and building things by hand, and putting previous skills as a sous chef to good use. Follow him on X at @CAGisMe.
Marissa J. Lang (she/her/ella) is the 2025 co-director of the Latino Reporter and a 2009 alumna. She began mentoring in 2017, and has co-led the project twice virtually during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and in-person for NAHJ’s 40th conference in Los Angeles.
Lang is an enterprise reporter for the The Washington Post, where she writes high-impact stories focused on the D.C. region. She previously covered housing, gentrification and the changing face of American cities for The Post and was part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for The Post’s coverage of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and its aftermath.
Lang has worked for newspapers around the country, including covering tech for the San Francisco Chronicle, city government at the Sacramento Bee, criminal and social justice for the Salt Lake Tribune and all-things-Florida for the Tampa Bay Times. A proud native of New York City, Lang is a notorious pizza snob, doting dog mom and unrepentant sinvergüenza. Follow her on X at @Marissa_Jae and on Instagram and TikTok at @marissa.lang.reports.
Tasha Sandoval (she/her/ella) is the Latino Reporter’s audio editor. It is her first year as an NAHJ Student Project mentor.
Sandoval is an audio producer, journalist, and essayist who has produced radio stories for Futuro Media’s Latino USA and award-winning podcasts for Futuro Studios, including La Brega, My Divo, and Chesspiece: The Elián González Story. Her written work has appeared in Catapult, Public Books, and Univisión Noticias, among others, and is forthcoming in Sound Fields. She is a graduate of the bilingual program at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, where she concentrated in audio reporting.
Before focusing on journalism, Sandoval traveled across Latin America for her work in highly-selective college admissions. You can find her exploring the world on her bike.
Carolina Astrain (she/her/ella) is the Latino Reporter’s broadcast editor. She joined the NAHJ Student Project in 2024 as a mentor and is an alumna of the 2009 Latino Reporter class in Puerto Rico.
Astrain is a morning news anchor and reporter for KAVU-TV in Victoria, Texas. Previously, she covered K-12 and higher education for The Victoria Advocate in Victoria, Texas. She is an award-winning journalist. In 2016, her work on highlighting the achievement gap in the Victoria Independent School District led to more attention and resources in early education.
She is a Houston native. Astrain graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism. You can find her on X @carolinastrain.
Janette Villafana (she/her/ella) is the Latino Reporter’s lead features editor. This is her first year as a mentor for the NAHJ Student Project.
Villafana is an award-winning bilingualcjournalist from Santa Ana, California. She is a multimedia reporter for the James Beard Award-winning L.A. TACO publication.
Over the last five years, she has developed her beat covering street vendor communities in Los Angeles, shedding light on their struggles, successes, and day-to-day lives. She has worked on projects with USC’s Center for Health Journalism, which brought attention to the many ways the current state, city laws, and surroundings affect their mental health.
Her work is highly centered on showcasing and uplifting community voices, with a particular focus on the Latino community. Some of her work has also appeared on LAist, Telemundo 52, NBC 4, and more.
Because of her work, she was featured in the exhibit “¡De última hora! Latinas Report Breaking News” at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington.
Gloria Gonzalez (she/her/ella) is the Latino Reporter’s newsletter co-lead. This is her first year as a mentor for the NAHJ Student Project.
Gonzalez is the Deputy Energy Editor at POLITICO and joined the news organization in February 2021 after more than two decades writing, reporting and editing stories about energy and environmental, health care and workplace safety issues for companies including Industry Dive and Crain Communications. She has covered major events such as the UNFCCC climate talks and OPEC meetings.
Gonzalez is a former board member of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Born and raised in New York City, Gonzalez has a journalism and political science degree from Syracuse University. In her free time, she loves to play trivia and frisbee golf and river raft and hike volcanoes.
Kaitlyn Olvera (she/her/ella) is the Latino Reporter’s newsletter co-lead. This is her first year as a mentor for the NAHJ Student Project.
Olvera started at POLITICO in 2021 as a digital producer, became deputy director for the Production and Copyediting team in 2022, and was then promoted to senior deputy director in 2024.
She previously worked at KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada, as a digital content producer. Before that, she was an assignment editor and news producer at KTVN 2 News in Reno.
Olvera, a Las Vegas native and avid Golden Knights fan, graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno, with a degree in journalism. She is also an alum of the 2019 POLITICO Journalism Institute.