Photo by Victoria Ivie
By Victoria Ivie
It seems rare to find a career that aligns with what we’ve studied in school. That’s exactly what happened with my California Local News Fellowship: My entire education prepared me for the equity beat I love.
With my placement at the Orange County Register (owned by Southern California News Group), I’ve been able to cover stories about garment workers held as slave laborers decades ago in El Monte, trans students in Temecula fighting for greater LGBT rights, inequity in homeownership among Black residents in the Inland Empire, the ongoing college protests across SoCal fighting for a ceasefire in Gaza and more.
Having the support and freedom of my fellowship and newsroom has allowed me to grow as a reporter and fully dive into stories that fall under my demographics and equity beat, as well as some general and breaking news reporting.
I’ve been able to work on more enterprise work than I have before, including highlighting LGBTQ+ hairstylists creating safe spaces for gender non-conforming clients, Latinx-owned entrepreneurship in Southern California, a Southern California-focused look at the impacts of Black families who died in Jonestown 45 years ago, to name a few.
I have also been able to meet with community members during some of their hardest times, including covering a one-year anniversary vigil for the Monterey Park mass shooting victims, the LGBTQ Orange County community mourning the loss of nonbinary teen Nex Benedict and various communities experiencing rising hate crime rates.
Photo by Victoria Ivie
The people and sources I’ve met along the way have been absolutely influential in enabling me to handle these often underreported stories with care. Especially impactful to me was meeting Alexei Romanoff, one of the few living Black Cat demonstrators. Meeting this elder LGBTQ activist and interviewing him in person when he no longer responds to media requests brought me to tears. Another impactful moment was being able to interview Holocaust survivors in their seventies and eighties.
This history in Southern California is so vital to bring to light, I’m very happy that the fellowship’s focus on diversity gives me an opportunity to do so.
Especially with uncertainty in the journalism landscape and rocky job market right now — with layoffs happening in major newsrooms — the security of being a fellow allows me to focus on doing my work.
Victoria’s published articles: