Raul Garcia Jr.
| Raul Garcia Jr. | |
|---|---|
| File:Raul Garcia Jr profile.pngRaul Garcia Jr profile.png | |
| Born | March 24, 1978 Weslaco, Texas |
| 🏳️ Nationality | United States of America |
| 🏫 Education | MA, New Media Journalism, Full Sail University BA, Business Management, Spring Arbor University |
| 🎓 Alma mater | Michigan State University |
| 💼 Occupation | Journalist |
| Style | New Media Journalism |
Raul Garcia Jr. (Born March 24, 1978) is a Mexican American award winning [1] multimedia journalist at The Mercedes Enterprise, and is currently the editor. Among other posts, he has been the general assignment reporter for the Valley Morning Star and sports reporter at The Monitor and Mid Valley Town Crier.[2] His work has been picked up by the Associated Press [3] and been published in The Brownsville Herald, New York Post [4] among others. His new coverage ranges from investigative reporting, community news, local politics, high school, college and professional sports.[5] Garcia's entrepreneurial journalism sense led him to the founding of Valleywood Magazine, a monthly news magazine established in 2007 about the South Texas community, business and culture. He is also the editor of multiple community online news website serving the Rio Grande Valley. In addition to his reporting he presents this news reports with photograph, audio and video nonlinear multimedia news journalism style. He has a Masters Degree in New Media Journalism from Full Sail University. [6] He earned a bachelor's degree in Business Management from Spring Arbor University. He also studied journalism at Michigan State University, Lansing Community College, Austin Community College and Univ. of Texas at Brownsville.
Early Years[edit]
Garcia was born in Weslaco, Texas. His parents Raul Garcia Sr. and Aida Saldana Mendoza are from Mercedes, Texas. Garcia was raised by a single parent and freely lived with his mother or father growing up. Garcia was raised in Haslett, Michigan while living with his mother, and Brownsville, Texas while living with his father. Growing up in Brownsville he attended Saint Marys Catholic School. Olivera Middle School and Hanna High School. Growing up with his mother he attended Murphy Elementary, Haslett Middle School and Haslett High School where he ultimately graduated in 1997. Garcia’s first job was a newspaper route in East Lansing, Michigan for the Lansing Community Newspapers organization. He began working in 1992 in the newspaper industry and continued the position until 1995 off and on. He was involved in sports and played football and basketball his freshman year at Brownsville Hanna in 1994. His sophomore year he played junior varsity for Haslett High School. And in his junior year he played junior varsity tennis at Haslett. His senior year Garcia dedicated his sports training to martial arts and reached purple belt rank at Mid Michigan Academy of Martial Arts.
Education[edit]
Upon graduating high school 1997 Garcia enrolled at Lansing Community College and attended for one semester before transferring to the University of Texas at Brownsville. Garcia quickly became a contributing writer for the Collegian Newspaper at UTB. His first story was a front page new story of the passing of a Praxis Orive, a UTB School Board Trustee. He continued writing about campus news and actives and school sports until transferring to Austin Community College in fall of 1999. At Austin Community College Garcia worked as a college assistant for the director of Journalism Sallie Sharpe between 1999 and 2001. Garcia was also involved in student government actives at Austin Community College. He made his move back to Michigan to attend Michigan State University after being accepted to study journalism in 2001. Garcia was one of the first reporters in the State News Newspaper the day of the September 11, 2001 attacks. He was hired as a contributing freelance writer for the campus weekly section The Loop. While a student at Michigan State University Garcia was a student research assistant for Dr. Rene Rosenbaum through the Julian Samora Research Institute where he worked on producing marketing material, newsletter, websites and news reports until 2004. Garcia transferred to Spring Arbor University to study business management in an accelerated degree program that he would later complete in 2004. While meeting his degree requirement for Spring Arbor University Garcia reenrolled at Lansing Community College and worked on the College newspaper The Lookout and was hired as editor by Bill Lowenstien for two semesters in 2004. Within that time Garcia was also reporting feature news reports for special sections of the Lansing State Journal and Mi Gente Magazine, the premier Latino news publication in Michigan. Garcia linked up with the Lansing State Journal and Mi Gente Magazine under the mentorship of Michigan State University professor Rosa Morales. Garcia and a core group of minority journalism students founded ALANA Journalism Student Group that offered mentorship and training opportunity to minority students at Michigan State and helped found the freelance journalism course offered by the school of journalism under the direction of Steven Lacy. In 2011 he joined the pioneer group of students in the New Media Master of Journalism Program at Full Sail University and graduated in March 2012.
Journalism Career[edit]
Garcia with the help of his father Raul Garcia Sr and journalism mentor Juan Montoya established a newspaper in 2003 called the Southwest Regional Times. The publication consisted of Brownsville, Texas news and future stories of Mexican Americans and Latinos in the Midwest. The publication continued for less than six months. Garcia would struggle to find work as a newspaper reporter immediately after finishing college. He applied at the Lansing Community News weekly, Niles Daily Star and The Monitor in 2004, but was unsuccessful in landing employment at any of the news desks. For the next three year Garcia worked newspaper deliver and sales for The City Pulse and Mi Gente Magazine where he was the Lansing Correspondent. In 2007 Garcia would return home to Mercedes, Texas to start his own newspaper magazine called Valleywood Magazine. By March 2007 he was a weekly contributor to the town paper The Mercedes Enterprise and was publishing Valleywood Magazine. Garcia would later be named managing editor of The Mercedes Enterprise by Robert F. Hinds the Enterprise publisher and editor. Garcia helped transition the Mercedes Enterprise into digital production and established its website presence in Nov. 2007. The untimely passing of Hinds in July 2008 appointed Garcia to Editor until he left the publication to focus his time on Valleywood Magazine in October 2008. Garcia would go on to work for The La Feria News, Rio Hondo News and Los Fresnos News where he also helped establish news websites for each of the publications in 2012. After leaving the La Feria News Garcia went on to work as an associate producer for News Channel 5 in 2014. And in late November 2015 Garcia was hired at the Valley Morning Star daily newspaper where he would post two stories a day for the next three years. He broke the news of the passing of Sgt. Mike Cino of Mercedes who was killed in Afghanistan. And he provided many investigative reports about various communities in Cameron County.
Photojournalism[edit]
As a general assignment reporter at The Valley Morning Star, Garcia shot many of the photos which accompanied his stories. His photos from September 15, 2020 Queen Isabela Bridge collapse 19th anniversary report was selected as a top five front pages in the country. Many of his photographs were published in stories across the country as they were picked up for his reporting. The New York Post published is story about a Harlingen woman who won a contest and was delivered beer by the Budweiser Clydesdales carriage. His photo essays published in The Mercedes Enterprise about Mercedes community events have sparked tremendous reader interest. As the editor and reporter for the Lookout Garcia also photographed many of his pictures for his stories for hard news and sports.
Awards and Recognition[edit]
- 2002 Outstanding Works in Journalism, Michigan State University School of Journalism Symposium
- 2003 Outstanding Works in Journalism, Michigan State University School of Journalism Symposium
- 2004 Cesar Chaves Essay Contest, 3rd place, Michigan Cesar Chaves Commission
- 2016 Third Place Best Video news story longer two minutes, Texas APME
- 2018 Team Effort,Texas APME
- 2018 Best Newsroom, Texas APME
- 2018 Honorable Mention Best Online Multimedia Package news story, Texas APME 2018 Police reporting, Harlingen Police
References
- ↑ "2016 Texas APME Award Winners". Retrieved 2021-03-31.
- ↑ "Raul Garcia, Author at Mid Valley Town Crier". Mid Valley Town Crier. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
- ↑ "Empowering teachers: Area educators enrolled in world-class university programs". AP NEWS. 2019-01-07. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
- ↑ Press, Associated (2017-03-04). "Woman who gave up beer for Lent wins case hauled by Clydesdales". New York Post. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
- ↑ "Raul Garcia | The Monitor (McAllen, TX) Journalist | Muck Rack". muckrack.com. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
- ↑ Droguett, Katherine (2011-04-11). "My Journey in New Media Journalism...: Raul Garcia- Becoming a Better Journalist..." My Journey in New Media Journalism... Retrieved 2021-03-31.
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