Articles Posted by Mariana Barrera

I was born in Mexico on July 2, 1992, and have lived in Salinas, CA all my life. As far back as I can remember, my parents have always been busy people, so my brother and I didn't get to see them as much as we would've liked to. My dad works in agriculture, and has always worked long hours and left for months at a time due to his job. My mom was always around a lot more, but when I turned thirteen she opened a mexican restaurant, and was around less. Growing up, I spent my weekends at that restaurant and up until my junior year of high school I thought I wanted to be a chef. I was accidentally placed in a Journalism class,and that's where I found my true passion. My very strict, but motivating journalism teacher taught me what he knew about the craft, and lead me towards the Mosaic Journalism Workshop during the summer of 2009 There I had my first real-world journalism experience, reporting for a two-week summer program where I got to work with real journalists. The following year I became editor-in-chief of my high school's news paper, and enjoyed it so much that I decided to drop my life-long dream of becoming a chef to pursue journalism. Today I am studying Journalism at San Francisco State University with the hopes of one day becoming a well-rounded journalist.