Erik Galicia's Inspiring Journey from Overcoming Adversity to Award-Winning Journalism

Erik Galicia came to RCC 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: Finish the math studies he had started years ago?

Nope. He fell in love with journalism.

“As a reporter for Viewpoints, I jumped into coverage of the Riverside Community College District. 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,” he said.

After serving as the Viewpoints EIC during the 2020-21 academic year, Galicia earned an Associate in Arts in Journalism degree and transferred to the Missouri School of Journalism — one of the nation’s best. 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 Mid-Missouri’s Spanish-speaking immigrants. “Our effort won us a first-place prize in the national Reynolds Journalism Institute Student Innovation Competition,” Galicia said.

He earned a Bachelor of Journalism degree in June, becoming the first in his family to graduate from college.

Now, Galicia works as a reporter for the Fresno Bee through the California Local News Fellowship. As the Bee’s Madera County reporter, he will cover a wide range of issues in an agricultural region.

“Although I just started this position, I am bringing into it a wholehearted belief that journalism is a public service and carries a great deal of responsibility. That seed was planted in me at Viewpoints.”

Recently, Galicia won a first-place 2023 Missouri Press Association Award as part of a team of reporters for a breaking 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.

A year after graduating from RCC, the former Viewpoints EIC picked up the Journalism Association of Community Colleges’ statewide news writing first-place award for The Fight for Great Lake. The inaugural California Humanities Emerging Journalist Fellowship Program made the reporting project possible.