SF State Journalism graduates earn spots as California Local News Fellows

SF State Journalism Class of 2025 graduates Gabriela Calvillo Alvarez, Cami Domínguez, and Daniel Hernández have earned placements as part of the 2025 cohort of the California Local News Fellowship. The competitive program, administered by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, places emerging journalists into two-year, full-time roles within newsrooms serving diverse and underserved communities across California.

Calvillo Alvarez will report for El Tímpano in Oakland, Domínguez will head to the San Francisco Public Press, and Hernández, a graduate of the  groundbreaking Bilingual Spanish Journalism degree program at SF State, joins his hometown Riverside Record.

They follow recent SF State alumni, including Ximena Loeza (El Tímpano, 2024) and Sebastian Miño-Bucheli (Coastside News), both of whom also bring bilingual skills to their fellowship placements. All five SF State Journalism graduates selected to date as California Local News fellows  are bilingual in Spanish and English, reflecting the program's unique commitment to serving California’s multilingual communities.

San Francisco State University, a Hispanic-Serving Institution with 37 percent Latinx enrollment, launched the Bilingual Spanish Journalism Bachelor of Arts degree in fall 2023, the first and only bachelor’s program in bilingual Spanish journalism at a U.S. public university. The program emphasizes culturally responsive reporting, ethics and community engagement, preparing students to  contribute in professional bilingual newsrooms. SF State Journalism undergraduates currently identify as more than 50 percent Latinx, highlighting the program's alignment with  diverse communities across Northern California.

"Gabriela, Cami, and Daniel earned these fellowships by demonstrating the power of journalism rooted in cultural fluency and community connection," said Jesse Garnier, Chair of the Journalism Department. "Their courageous journeys, each different and unique, demonstrate the impact of bilingual journalists in our communities and newsrooms."

About the California Local News Fellowship

The California Local News Fellowship, funded by the state and managed by UC Berkeley, supports local journalism through paid, full-time, two-year placements. Since its launch in 2023, the program has placed more than 70 fellows in over 50 newsrooms across 35 California counties. Fellows provide essential reporting on critical issues ranging from environmental justice to housing and public health, often working in and for communities historically underserved by traditional media.

About SF State Journalism

For more than 60 years, SF State Journalism has prepared students for jobs covering communities with clarity, context and purpose. As a champion of equity within a  Hispanic Serving Institution, the department reflects California’s diversity and leads nationally with the first-ever four-year Bilingual Spanish Journalism degree at a U.S. public university.

Accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC), SF State Journalism is rooted in public service. Students engage in hands-on learning through Golden Gate Xpress and Xpress Magazine, and have earned top honors from the Hearst Journalism Awards, the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation, and the Society of Professional Journalists. With a curriculum grounded in ethics, accuracy, and community accountability, the program equips graduates to report across languages, platforms, and perspectives, locally and globally.