Andrew Mendez is a second-year Latinx student at the Reynolds School of Journalism. He grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, before coming to the University of Nevada, Reno for his undergraduate degrees in journalism and Spanish.
He currently works as the Spanish editor for the Nevada Sagebrush, a bilingual reporter for Noticiero Móvil and a bilingual intern at KUNR Public Radio. He also serves as a member of the Journalism Student Council and worked as a JFIT mentor this past summer.
Mendez's love for storytelling and bilingual journalism led him to the Reynolds School.
"For journalism specifically, I wanted to tell stories. I wanted to show why something was happening or where it was happening, when it was happening and just get someone else's perspective on it."
Mendez said speaking Spanish on campus helped him to stay connected to his culture and his home.
"To me, just like being open and speaking Spanish with professors, speaking Spanish with friends, it's something that makes me feel like as if I'm not disconnected from my own culture, even though I don't see it as much here."
Listen to Mendez's work for KUNR online.
Andrew Mendez: For journalism specifically, I wanted to tell stories. I wanted to show why something was happening or where it was happening, when it was happening and just get someone else's perspective on it. Just show like how it's impacting community. Just showing how important it is even if it's something so small, how it can relate back to a bigger issue.
Andrew Mendez in the audio studio: Sandra Mitrovich is a former coordinator of outreach and retention for The Center. She says students have to be engaged in various aspects of campus life.
Andrew Mendez: When I would really want to go ahead and do a story in both English and Spanish if I know my audience is Latinx, I really go ahead and look at family and culture because that just plays a huge role. Just myself being Latinx, family and culture plays a huge role in my life.
Working at KUNR has just been awesome. I feel I can go to my editors with anything, any story idea and be like, "Hey, I want to write this." And then they're going to walk me through the process of like, "Hey, can you actually pull this through? "And if I can, I have the full support of them to do it. And especially working in the bilingual internship, it's something that I'm loving a lot. Not only am I getting to translate stories and I'm also able to go ahead and do original reporting.
To me, just like being open and speaking Spanish with professors, speaking Spanish with friends, it's something that makes me feel like as if I'm not disconnected from my own culture, even though I don't see it as much here.
