Nicole Chavez
University of Texas at El Paso
Nicole Chavez calls herself a border girl. She splits her time between the two cities she holds closest to her heart: her hometown, El Paso, and Ciudad Juárez.
“I live in a place where two cultures merge,” Chavez, a senior at the University of Texas at El Paso, said. “The only thing that divides them is the river.”
Her strong connection to Ciudad Juárez, and her ability to report in English and Spanish, has made her want to tell stories about the recent spike in drug violence in the area, she said.
Chavez, 21, has covered the growing trend of Juárez residents seeking asylum in the United States. One case left an impression on her — that of a family denied asylum because they couldn’t provide substantial proof of life-threatening danger. The daughter had been kidnapped and the family suspected the police. When they reported the crime to the authorities, the investigation didn’t move forward. Unable to leave Mexico, the family lived in fear.
Stories like that have motivated Chavez to be a journalist, she said. She’s grateful for the opportunities she’s had and likes to encourage journalism students to seek out internships and not give up on their goals. Chavez has completed internships at Fronteras Desk, a multimedia collaboration between several public radio stations; The Brownsville Herald in Texas; and El Tiempo Latino, a newspaper in Washington owned by The Washington Post Co. She is majoring in multimedia journalism and is multimedia and online editor of the campus newspaper, The Prospector, and the editor of the school’s bilingual magazine, Minero.
As vice president of her university’s chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Chavez mentors freshman journalism students, making sure they know how much is out there for them, and how much they can learn from the industry. “Sometimes in El Paso,” Chavez said, “especially at UTEP, they start out as journalism majors, but quickly switch because they think there aren’t opportunities.”
One day, she says, she wants to wow a recruiter with all she’s done: “I’m always trying to learn something — learn something and get good at it.”
- Elyse Toribio
During the Institute, students are working journalists supervised by reporters and editors from The New York Times and The Boston Globe. Opportunities for students include reporting, copy editing, photography, Web production, print and Web design, and video journalism. Institute graduates now work at major news organizations, including The Associated Press, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and The New York Times itself, and dozens of midsize news organizations.