Alicia Alvarez

I would really say my community, my family. My mother is the reason I fell in love with reading - she would take me to the library every week when I was a little girl and let me check out the maximum amount of books, and then we would come back 3 days later because I had read them all. She's always been there fostering my creativity, fostering my love for reading and writing, and she was truly the grounding voice. Whenever I would break down, whenever I would cry because I missed home or because school was so difficult, I could call her and she would remind me exactly why I was doing it. My father supported me through school and made sure that no matter what, I would get my degrees. He put me in a position where I am able to focus on my reporting, I'm able to focus on giving back to my community, and I know a lot of people aren't lucky enough to have that. Instead of squandering that effort that my parents put in, I'm happy to foster it. I have amazing siblings - two brothers and a sister-in-law that, while they don't understand my job entirely, they always read everything I write and watch my shows despite living states away. Truly my village is the reason I'm successful.

The best advice I was given was that you wake up every day, and it's a new day. In journalism, you're constantly confronted with the worst parts of people, the darkest news, the death, the destruction, the tragedy, where you feel helpless. There are times where you make mistakes, there are times where stories that you were really passionate about fall through or they don't pan out the way you wanted them to. You have to wake up the next morning and move on. You have to wake up with a fresh face, a fresh mind, to be able to continue to serve your community and just accept whatever issues happened yesterday and keep moving. That doesn't mean ignore them, that doesn't mean ignore the tragedy, but if you focus on the despair, if you focus on the anguish, if you focus on the anger that you may feel, you're no longer going to be able to serve your community the way they deserve.

It's hard. Right now, the world is against you, but that makes it all the more reason that you should do it. There's not a lot of women in this field, and I think that needs to be changed. I think a woman's touch, a woman's empathy, a woman's kindness would absolutely change the industry - it would make journalism so much more human the way it used to be. If someone tells you no, if someone tells you you're not strong enough, you're too emotional, you're too sensitive, whatever excuses they may come up with to try to diminish your capabilities, ignore them. They're not true journalists, they're not true writers, because every writer wants a new voice. Every journalist wants that diversity in the newsroom to make sure that every single issue anyone could possibly think of is being covered. Your voice matters, and if someone's trying to silence it, make it even louder.

I would say it's a challenge just to get into the industry to begin with. For 5 months after my graduation from my master's degree, I was unemployed. I was sending out hundreds upon hundreds of applications every day, and the current job I have now was really the only one that responded, the only one that really gave me interviews. Just breaking into journalism and trying to get the position you want is extremely difficult, and powering through it was something that was very hard for me to do. It was very demoralizing, but I'm grateful I stuck through. Right now, the world is my oyster when it comes to journalism. I'm very young, and thankfully, I do have the skills that both of my colleges gave me where I can go any way I wanted to. I can continue in broadcast journalism, I can pivot the way I'm hoping back into digital and print and photography for journalism. That's the beauty of the opportunity - you can really create your own path with this industry. Yes, it's difficult. It's an industry that is definitely shrinking right now. We're seeing a lot of layoffs. But it's still so incredibly important, so I think the opportunity really is just to battle it through, and I'm excited for that.

I would say truth is at the basis of all of it. As a journalist, I know that a lot of people do not trust the media anymore, whether it's because of politics or personal issues they have. But always centering everything I do in the search for the truth, and representing that as easily and as simply as possible to my audience - making sure that all of my numbers are accurate, making sure that I speak to every side of the issue, whether it's political or if there's a social issue, making sure everyone is represented. Another really deep value of mine is community. I am lucky enough where I am starting my career in a position where we cover 3 counties, 3 very different communities. We stretch from the coast all the way to inland, so from very affluent people to people who are farmworkers and are just trying to make a living. Really being able to juggle what they need, what they need to feel represented, what information is most important to them, how to serve not only them but their children, their families - really integrating myself in that community and supporting it, and allowing myself to be supported by it, allowing myself to take those phone calls, to hear those pitches from community members, and to understand what they need directly from them instead of assuming, I think is another really strong value of mine.