California Local News Fellows celebrate connections as fellowships conclude

When Yucheng Tang started his California Local News Fellowship with ChicoSol two years ago, he was desperate to find restaurant food that was close to the tastes he grew up on in eastern China. 

When he finally came upon the Korean-owned Oshio in downtown Chico, he couldn’t get enough and would sometimes eat at the family-owned spot five times a week. Oshio owner Micki Kim would give him seaweed snacks and fruit for free and they bonded over learning English from television. 

Two years later, at the end of his fellowship and before moving to Chicago for a new journalism job, Tang went to Oshio to say goodbye and thanks to Micki and to her husband, Daniel. 

“We are going to miss you, and good luck in Chicago,” said Kim, standing behind the counter with her husband and blowing Tang a kiss. Tang blew one back. But after stepping outside, he knew he wanted to give Kim a final hug for making him feel so at home in Chico. He ran back in. 

“I couldn’t help but cry,” said Tang. “I thought about those moments that I wanted to leave Chico so much and when I couldn’t find any food to eat.”  

When Tang shared this story during a final online gathering of 2024–2026 fellows, the room was full of journalists wiping away tears.  “That is community journalism,” wrote one fellow in the chat.

Tang’s story resonated as other fellows highlighted what meant the most to them over the past two years, including making homes and connections in unfamiliar places. 

“You’re hours away from wrapping up your time in what is the largest journalism program of its kind in the country and dare I say in the world,” Monica Campbell, director of the California Local News Fellowship Program, said to fellows. “The state of California invested in you to be in community, to listen, to document, to witness, to talk to people who might otherwise be ignored. And you did all of that.” 

Fellows in the 2024-2026 cohort covered everything from election stories to ICE raids and protests, wildfires and polluted water, city council meetings and political malfeasance. They reported on county fairs, lowriders and Bigfoot. They documented times of challenge and celebration. 

The pioneering fellowship program based at UC Berkeley Journalism was spearheaded by former State Senator Steve Glazer in 2022. Glazer secured $25 million in state funds to invigorate local news coverage in California — reporting that’s critical to accountability and cohesion in local communities. The state has twice renewed and even expanded support to include the Maynard Institute’s Propel Initiative, most recently this summer.  

As she thanked the outgoing cohort, Campbell recognized both the individual and collective impact of the fellowship as well as its particularities. “When I think about this fellowship program and even my own career as a journalist, what really stands out and what so many of you experienced…is that you were often the only journalist around,” she said. “You were often the only full-time staff reporter at your newsroom, asking the questions and being there in community in places in the state where often folks don’t want journalists around, increasingly. And you stuck it out. And that’s really hard.” 

This kind of challenge was often navigated or remedied with support from the fellowship’s staff. 

Emma Garcia, a 2023 alum of UC Berkeley Journalism, will conclude her two-year fellowship at El Tecolate where she produced multimedia news stories on protests, the impact of ICE and more. She also wrote features, particularly about San Francisco’s Latino community, recently writing about women lowriders.

Garcia appreciated the support she received from the fellowship staff. 

“When I said, ‘I need support!’ there was, boom! Resources. Boom! A mentor,” Garcia said. “With the fellowship, I felt supported every time I raised my hand.” 

Through the fellowship, she said, she gained the trust of her community as well as confidence in her own reporting. 

“I can now say I’m a proper journalist,” Garcia said. 

Joe Garcia, a fellow with CalMatters, was incarcerated at San Quentin when he was awarded the fellowship. He said securing the fellowship helped him win parole because it showed he would immediately have work and be engaged with his community. Since then, he’s reported and written stories few others could write — for example, She made a fatal choice at 22. Now she’s in prison, figuring herself out one day at a time and He spent 19 years in isolation on death row. Then the handcuffs came off. A documentary is in the works about Garcia’s life. 

In congratulating the fellows, Katharine Mieszkowski, a cohort manager on the fellowship team, said sometimes people mistakenly believe the fellowship is an internship program. 

“I’ll say, ‘no, no, no.’ These people are reporters. They know the fundamentals of journalism and they are hitting the ground running from day one,” she said. 

Mieszkowski highlighted fellow Lingzi Chen, a reporter for Lake County News, who, in her first week as a reporter, covered a raging wildfire. She went on to cover the ins and outs of the Lake County Board of Supervisors.  

But Chen said her two years in Lake County were not only about journalism. They were also about being an artist and appreciating the physical space near Clear Lake, which she frequently painted in watercolor. 

“The lake and the people and memories of painting the lake will be the memories I will never forget,” Chen said. “That’s not journalism, but that’s life and it’s the meaning and significance of my fellowship these two years.”

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