Erik Galicia came to Riverside City College as a 26-year-old in 2018, just a few months off drugs, wondering what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

While at the College, he fell in love with journalism.

“As a reporter for Viewpoints, I jumped into coverage of the Riverside Community College District,” he said. “I was honored to become the student newspaper’s editor-in-chief at the height of the pandemic and to report from the front lines of the movements playing out on the streets of Riverside.”

After serving as the editor-in-chief during the 2020-21 academic year, Galicia earned an associate degree in journalism and transferred to the Missouri School of Journalism — one of the nation’s premier programs. As part of a team of Hispanic journalism students, he helped launch an effort to bring important information about health, education and legal resources to Missouri’s Spanish speaking immigrants.

He and his team took first place in the national Reynolds Journalism Institute Student Innovation Competition. He eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism, becoming the first in his family to graduate from college. Today, Galicia works as a reporter for the Fresno Bee. In 2023, he won a Missouri Press Association Award as part of a team of reporters for a breaking a news story about a wildfire that devastated the small town of Wooldridge. He also took third place in the Best Health Story category for coverage of medical student led efforts to better serve Spanish-speaking patients.