Voice of OC continues to be renewed each semester by welcoming apprentice journalists who are honing their craft.
Our nonprofit newsroom is structured to offer real-world journalism training to Orange County college students, lifting up their work and helping jump-start their news careers.
Voice of OC staff writers Spencer Custodio, Nick Gerda and Brandon Pho all started as interns and were trained to develop skills specifically tailored to local government accountability reporting.
Our current news reporting fellows, Hosam Elattar and Noah Biesiada, continue to win awards up and down the state for wildfire investigations and education reporting, while also increasing Voice’s news coverage of central and south county.
This summer Voice of OC welcomed Jillie Herrold, Angelina Hicks and Lupita Herrera who are helping increase coverage of this diverse county and bringing fresh perspectives to the newsroom.
Herrold is a Chapman University graduate and Voice of OC summer news reporting fellow. She has penned stories about future plans for the old Tustin air base, debates over the future of Banning Ranch and how Irvine will spend $13.8 million on a parking lot for Wild Rivers.
Hicks is a Chapman sophomore and a Voice news reporting fellow. Her work so far includes covering complaints of Brown Act violations in Mission Viejo that led to a lawsuit regarding secrecy and property rights, along with debates around outdoor dining and flying flags in honor of Pride Month.
Herrera is a summer photojournalism intern with a background in fine art documentary photography. Prior to Voice of OC she worked as a photographer for the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University where she is majoring in photography with a minor in global women studies. This summer she has brought visuals to stories such as vaccine drives and debates around open space.
We continue to recruit new interns each semester, for more details reach out by email.
Voice of OC’s nonpartisan local news is free to read but not free to produce. Monthly sustaining donations are tax-deductible and support our efforts to train and lift up the next generation of journalists.
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