The Santa Barbara News-Press welcomes six paid interns this summer as part of the Sara Miller McCune News-Press Summer Fellows programs.
The News-Press received more than 100 intern applications for the positions. Our fellows bring a diversity of backgrounds and experiences, but have local roots.
We have young journalists from Dos Pueblos, San Marcos and Santa Barbara high school. Three of the cohort graduated from, or are attending UC Berkeley. One attends UCLA and two others have recently graduated from Santa Barbara City College, bound for UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State University, respectively.
The 12-week paid fellows program is made possible by a generous grant from Thousand Oaks-based global academic publisher, Sage Publishing, in honor of the 85th birthday of its founder, local publisher and philanthropist, Sara Miller McCune. This gift — known as the Sara Fund — has been stewarded by local nonprofit, State of Mind Cafe, and now covers the full cost of the News-Press’ summer intern fellows.
In recognition of this crucial support, the intern program has been named the Sara Miller McCune News-Press Summer Fellows.
The fellows joining the News-Press this summer:
Viviana Ruiz: Ruiz is the former editor-in-chief of the Santa Barbara City College newspaper, The Channels. She grew up in Santa Barbara and is a proud graduate of Santa Barbara High School where she was the features editor for its student newspaper, The Forge.
Ruiz graduated from City College last week and is transferring to San Diego State University in the fall.
Aston Smith: Smith is a reporter and videographer who graduated from Dos Pueblos High School and its media news program. Smith was originally hired at the News-Press as a paid freelancer, and will continue his reporting this summer as part of the fellows program.
Smith previously worked for SBCC’s The Channels and will transfer to UCSB in the fall.
Kaitlin Sweeney: Sweeney graduated from UC Berkeley earlier this month with a bachelor’s degree in English and minor in journalism. She has written most recently for Oakland North, a news publication of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Sweeney previously took journalism courses at Santa Barbara City College, where she earned her associate’s degree in English.
Roman Trovato: Trovato attends UC Berkeley where he has just completed his sophomore year and currently writes for the campus newspaper, The Daily Californian. Trovato is majoring in media studies and minoring in journalism.
Trovato graduated from San Marcos High School, where he was Arts & Entertainment editor for its student publication, The King’s Page. He was also previously an intern at the Santa Barbara Independent.
Amanda Velasco: Velasco will be a junior this fall at UCLA where she is currently the Features and Student Life Editor for The Daily Bruin. Velasco has held positions at several campus publications and previously interned at statewide education news outlet, EdSource.
Velasco also worked as a photographer for PRIME Magazine, UCLA’s quarterly arts, culture and lifestyle magazine. She grew up in San Ramon, California.
Sofia Wallace: Wallace graduated from UC Berkeley this month with a bachelor’s degree in media studies and a minor in journalism. She most recently worked as the Special Issues editor for The Daily Californian. Wallace also wrote news stories for the Voice of San Francisco last Fall.
Wallace graduated from San Marcos High School, where she was editor-in-chief of The King’s Page.
Our fellows will be busy this summer covering the issues that this community cares about most, from housing, immigration and the environment, to breaking news, sports and education. They will tell these stories across multiple social media platforms.
They join the News-Press’ growing staff of full-time reporters, including Julianna Lozada and Tom Schultz, along with a corp of local freelancers.
You can find our fellows, and the whole News-Press team at newspress.com, on our social media channels, and most importantly in the community, where great reporters belong.
