Editor’s note: Olivia Reyes Garcia recently was selected for Presstime magazine’s annual “20 under 40” list. Presstime is the publication of the Newspaper Association of America. She is editor of El Californiano, the weekly bilingual paper published by The Bakersfield Californian. In 1992-93, she was The Rip’s editor in chief.
Walking on the Bakersfield College campus, I am often reminded of my days as a student there. The BC Journalism Program has always had a special place in my heart.
It’s where I grew out of my shell as a nervous, unsure, indecisive 18-year-old. I knew I wanted to study journalism but wasn’t sure if it was what I really wanted to do after college.
Many students often have to wait until they are finished with college before they can get their first real stab at their career goal. But I was lucky because I wasn’t going to have to wait — and I realized that the moment I walked into my journalism class that displayed the words “Renegade Rip” at the entrance.
I had signed up for the Newspaper Production class, curious about what it would be like to produce a weekly campus publication. But I knew this class wasn’t going to be typical of other lecture-driven classes when I learned that I was going to be producing a number of weekly issues throughout the semester.
Young, nervous and curious at the same time, I found myself, then a freshman, sitting among students interested in learning how a weekly campus newspaper operates.
We got more than what we envisioned. Kathy Freeman, the class instructor, laid out the plan: We would produce a number of weekly issues in one semester. Producing meant we would be involved in every facet of what it takes to create a newspaper. We would brainstorm story ideas; interview sources; report on a variety of topics, from investigative news to feature stories; edit articles; take photographs; sell ads; and design, lay out and proof pages.
All in one semester.
I felt a little overwhelmed at first. Then, I felt challenged. Could I do this at the same time that I was carrying a full-time unit workload? This was something I didn’t need to ask my journalism adviser. She expected 100 percent out of us, if not more.
Initially, I whined and moaned like most college students do when we realize we have to do more work.
Then, I realized something. For the first time, I was pushing myself to excel. But we weren’t doing this alone, though. We had a great support staff: Robin Johnson, department assistant, and Rod Thornburg, photo lab technician. A freelance photographer, Rod showed us the ropes of taking photographs.
The Rip became the home away from home for me, and Robin was like my mom away from home.
She helped us find potential advertisers, assisted students and the public, and provided us with messages from sources who stopped by or called. But she was more on a personal level. She was a nurturer.
I spent most of my time at The Rip, and was always welcomed by Robin’s smile. I know she heard one too many stories of our lives.
The students and I were able to produce a weekly paper that generated several journalism awards and earned some ad revenue. But more than that, the journalism class helped me become the editor that I am, carrying a little bit of Robin and Kathy in me.
Perhaps that’s one of the reasons that I enjoy teaching journalism part-time at BC. For me, I see it as a way of returning the favor to the journalism faculty and staff who helped me hone my writing and reporting skills.
Thanks to them, I knew that journalism was the career that I wanted to follow. And through them, I was able to land my first journalism internship at The Californian, where I now serve as an editor.
There’s no way I’d have accomplished that without The Rip and the help of those who worked there.