This October at Santa Ana College, about a dozen people gathered in a newsroom that’s not much bigger than a studio apartment.

For hours, they pored over layouts and stories, analyzing every word and punctuation mark on their computer screens. Some printed out drafts and took to editing with a pen.

The photo adviser floated around, helping students edit images, making sure they had the proper color and exposure. As the evening progressed, two alumni, now students at Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State Long Beach, also showed up to help.

The reporters, editors, advisers, and alumni were hard at work on the print edition of el Don, the college’s storied newsmagazine. Soon after, they would submit that edition to compete for the National Pacemaker Awards, largely considered to be the highest of honors.

For decades, el Don has been a routine recipient of these awards. And so, on that night, everything had to be perfect. Santa Ana College had a record to keep.

Covers of recent el Don issues, on display at Santa Ana College.

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Beyond that newsroom’s four walls, the journalism world is less bright. Across the country, journalists are grappling with everything from mass layoffs to the threat of AI, all this on top of an erosion in public trust. One media executive told New York Magazine: “I think you’d have to be crazy to begin a career in journalism right now.”

When Talan Garcia, el Don’s views editor, heard this, she let out a laugh.

“It’s true,” they said. “It is a dying medium.”

“But,” she added, “I also feel like we need it now more than ever.”

This December, el Don is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Ahead of the newsmagazine’s centennial, LAist spoke with those who’ve brought it to life in recent decades. They reflected on how they got their start and the importance of student journalism. They also shared what this newsroom means to them; what inspires them; what scares them; and how to prepare for whatever comes next.

Ash Mojica

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Chris Treble

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How did you end up in journalism?

“I just got out of working for the last 10 plus years and decided to take a semester of, like, personal reflection, personal development time. So, I'm taking this journalism class because it's completely different than what I have been doing — I used to work in aviation manufacturing. And I'm also taking American Sign Language and guitar.”

— Chris Treble, el Don staff writer, returning student

“I was 30 when I first joined, and I had just come back to college for, I think, the third or fourth time. I've got ADHD and have a really hard time focusing on things that are not interesting to me ... My dad was in an art class with one of the [el Don] editors ... And she mentioned to him that the el Don was looking for photographers. So, I was, like, ‘Hey, photojournalism! Sounds great!’ ... And then I saw a small blurb pop up on a local news app about a sexual assault that had taken place on our campus. I came in [the newsroom] and was, like, ‘Hey, so is this a thing you cover, or is this, like, too heavy?’ And they were, like, ‘Oh, we absolutely cover that. Write it up.’ And I'm, like, ‘No, no. I'm a photographer.’ And they were like, ‘Write it.’ So that was the first byline.”

— Carrie Graham, former el Don EIC, freelance reporter in Orange County

“I did a story on a professor that had just passed . . . And it was, honestly, it was an honor to get to write about someone that had affected my life and to get to share that news and get to talk to people who were also affected by her. I feel like that was a perfect story for me to, you know, really like cement that, like, I think I found what I want to do.”

— Ash Mojica, el Don staff writer, earned a B.A. in English at Cal State Fullerton

Inside the el Don newsroom.

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What makes the newsroom special?

“It's being confined in a small space, working together, and just wanting to do better.”

— Geovanni Esparza, el Don news editor

“I just want to get one percent better every single day. And with the advisors that are in the newsroom, I feel like they have created a great place for us to do so, because they help us through every step of the way without being very controlling. Like, it's still very much our work, with their guidance.”

— Ryla Manalang, el Don lifestyle editor

Ryla Manalang

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Carrie Graham

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“Being in that newsroom is probably the first time in my life that I felt like I fit in somewhere. I've always kind of been the outsider in groups, where, like, everyone got along with me, but I wasn't really part of things or it was easy to forget about me when people were planning stuff . . . That was the first time that I felt like I could be me, in all of my dorky quirkiness, and nobody was looking down on me for it.”

— Carrie Graham 

“[The newsroom] is full of people who want to see you succeed and know the challenges that you're facing. So I just feel like I'll be a part of el Don forever, you know? I don't see any of those people ever leaving my life.”

— Kate Bustamante, former el Don EIC, Cal State Dominguez Hills undergrad majoring in psychology

What it means to be the 'first rough draft of history'

“We have students that are reporting on things that they're living, and maybe major news outlets might not think of them as being able to be ‘objective’ about that. But we're working with the community members, and I'm training community members to cover and inform their own community . . . So what we really emphasize more is fairness: Did you get enough reporting? Are you talking to all these different types of sources? ”

— Sarah Bennett, el Don adviser and journalism department chair at Santa Ana College, former el Don editor, co-founder of community print studio PLACE Long Beach

“Our publication does a lot for Santa Ana, especially because we're in a community that doesn't get a lot of representation. And, also, we're a community that is poorer than the rest of Orange County.”

— Talan Garcia, el Don views editor

“There's so many beautiful cultural traditions that are taking place here and just people taking care of each other, loving each other, and living their lives together. And this space and time in Santa Ana won't exist again. So, I have been really proud of seeing the way the students have preserved all of this information and their experiences and these people.”

— Jacqueline Schlossman, el Don adviser, associate professor of photography at Santa Ana College and co-chair of the art/photography department

What it takes to be an award-winning publication

“I would say 99% of the students that I got, over my 36 years there, almost all of them had zero journalism experience.”

— Charles Little, taught journalism at Santa Ana College for more than three decades

“The legacy is not guaranteed. There's a lot that goes into keeping [el Don] afloat and keeping it funded and recruiting students and training them. It's, you know, it's just constant . . . I think, because the publication has won for so many years, people sort of expect it . . . And I keep on having to say, like, this is an entirely different group of students that did this. You have no idea what these students went through.”

— Sarah Bennett 

“We have people at all different levels. We have news junkies who have been working here for three semesters, we also have people that are like, ‘Hey, I just want to make content for TikTok’ and kind of learn about journalism in the process.’”

— Ajay Orona, el Don adviser, assistant journalism professor, associate editor of Alta Journal

“We feel like we need to meet that standard and uphold it.”

— Geovanni Esparza 

Geo Esparaza

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Talan Garcia

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“I'm constantly trying to balance between working with people on their stories for print, working with people on their stories for web, and working with people on their stories for social media. Even with a whole day's work, going in at 10 a.m. and leaving around six or seven for el Don, there's still so much that has to be done before the end of the night, before I go to bed. Which is a lot, right? Because there's three different moving cycles all the time. But I'm addicted to it.”

— Talan Garcia 

Is it ethical to encourage people to pursue journalism?

“We are trying to remain positive, but without, you know, blinders on to the reality. I'm thinking a lot about how we approach this. Every semester it's, like, how do we start the conversation? What is happening in the media industry, and how do we frame the work that we're doing here at our school?”

— Sarah Bennett 

“If you can do storytelling — whether it's through writing or photography or making videos or doing social media — then there's going to be a career choice for you. The amount of work, though, that you will have to put in if you want to pursue journalism or photography or photojournalism, it's abundant.”

— Jacqueline Schlossman

“We need entrepreneurship in our field, because we have so many people who are being trained to go expect a job somewhere. And, as we know, those jobs are not waiting for journalism students to graduate. But that doesn't mean that your community doesn't need news and information . . .We're always talking about innovation and community impact, and I'm totally willing to rip up what we've done before and do something different.”

— Sarah Bennett 

“We want our students to be prepared to talk about money, to really clarify what the goals are, what the scope of the job is, what the expectations are, and, also, what the pay is, so they can make a living . . . I also teach them that, sometimes, we educate the industry by turning down work.”

— Jacqueline Schlossman

“There's a definite and desperate need for us to maintain media and make it important and valuable to society. Because, without that, what are we?”

— Charles Little 

Back issues of el Don, piled up on the newsroom floor. Staff members distribute the publication themselves.

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OK, but what’s the point of print?

“My students, especially the ones who went through high school during the pandemic, they're at a point where being online isn’t necessarily fun, it's just a part of work, just a part of getting things done . . . And I think print is something that's novel and fun and exciting to them.”

— Ajay Orona

“My students love zines. They're kind of, like, TikToks in your hand.”

— Sarah Bennett

“I feel like Gen Z is kind of a new opportunity to see whether or not print will really flourish in the future . . . I think that we will see a comeback. I mean, even just with zines in Orange County, I have noticed a lot of young people gravitating towards that . . . Sure, statistically, in the last 15, 20 years, there’s been a major decline in people subscribing to the New York Times's print edition and things like that. But, also, post-COVID, we want to experience things and hold it in our hands.”

— Talan Garcia 

How journalism transformed me . . .

“One piece that I'm really proud of is an interview with a man by the name of Barry Asher. I was scrolling through the Wikipedia of notable alumni from Santa Ana College and one just caught my eye. He was a [professional bowler] . . . And then I learned he's a hall of famer . . . . When we finally finished the print, we went to his bowling alley. I handed him the paper, and what really stood out to me is, as he was reading it, he was getting kind of choked up. And, like, by the end, he was on the verge of tears. And that really just hit me emotionally, that as a journalist, I can have this impact on people.”

— Brandon Rowley, el Don sports editor

“People are gonna hate me for this, but when I had to write [my college papers], I would always just send the first draft. And I would still get A's. It kind of made me a little bit cocky. And that just does not fly in journalism. The first draft is not it. You're gonna have editors ripping apart your pages, ripping up your babies. And you know what? I love it. I love having my work dissected. It's stepping on your pride a bit, but that needs to happen. You need that in order to grow.”

— Ash Mojica 

“I didn't think this was possible, like, journalism was never an option for me . . . My first day in the newsroom last fall, I told [my professors], ‘Hey, I've never taken a journalism class before in my life. I don't know what I'm doing.’ And they helped me get where I needed to be. And then, by the end of that semester, they were like, ‘He's gonna be the next lifestyle editor.’”

— Geovanni Esparza

“[Being editor in chief during the pandemic] was definitely chaotic . . . My youngest [kid] was about three or four, and all three of my kids have special needs. So there was a lot of trying to balance out being at school meetings versus being able to cover what I needed to cover and get edits done. And a lot of it was honestly doing edits at eleven o'clock at night after the kids had gone to bed . . . But it really gave me a chance to have some sense of self again, because I had been a stay-at-home mom for, like, 10 years . . . And I had gotten to a point where I didn't really know anything about myself anymore. I didn't exist outside of my role as mom. Like, if someone asked me what my favorite band was, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. My favorite food: chicken dinos, whatever my kids left behind. It wasn't healthy . . . So, even though it was a lot of work, it was really rewarding, because it was something that I was doing entirely for myself, so that I had some sense of me again.”

— Carrie Graham 

“It was kind of love at first assignment . . . Seeing my name in print made me feel like it was a stepping stone to what my future could be.”

— Ryla Manalang 

Jakki Padilla

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Jarely Olmos

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Is journalism in your future? What is the future of journalism?

“I like writing, and I love to read articles. I think some are very engaging and they inspire me and make me want to pursue this kind of work. But becoming a journalist? I need to see if I do want to do this later on.”

— Paola Cabrera, el Don staff writer

“[It’s] not that I don't love to write, I do. I just get a little insecure about my writing, and — I don't know if this is good or not — but, like, when it comes to video editing, I trust myself more.”

— Lizett Gallo, el Don staff writer

“I think a community college foundation in journalism is great because we can teach [students] how to be good reporters and be responsible and learn AP style and all the rest. But in terms of having a skill set, I think it's very important that they have a skill set outside of journalism, so they can make themselves more valuable and more useful. So, major in economics or business or science or anything that'll give you a step ahead.”

— Charles Little 

The newsmagazine's advisers: Ajay Orona, Sarah Bennett, and Jacqueline Schlossman.

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“No matter what, I'm always going to be a writer . . . I'm always going to be in this field that is tough, this field that is constantly shifting and underappreciated and undervalued, especially with the rise in AI. And it's scary, it's so scary. But I am such a firm believer in doing what you love, doing what's important. And I think, at the end of the day, I'm gonna be out there, fighting . . . I'd rather live struggling with what I love, than to, you know, not be able to even touch it or attempt it. I'm never gonna know unless I try, and I think I was always scared to try before. And now — maybe because I'm getting older — I just don't want to wait anymore.”

— Ash Mojica

“I'm dipping my toes everywhere, but I still feel like my heart is in journalism . . . I'm doing public relations so I can buy a house for my family. Like, I want to be able to survive, and my parents came from Mexico for a reason . . . It's hard for me to be selfish and just want to do journalism.”

— Jakki Padilla, former el Don editor, Cal State Long Beach undergrad

“Misinformation is a plague that is sweeping not only America, but the world . . . I'm studying it because, to some extent, I feel like an activist, and I want to see change in this world. And if that's only through a small part of the media, then that's enough for me. I want to learn how to master it so that I can effect change in media and create things that lead people to trusting their own local news organizations once again . . . I don't know how far I'll be able to take that, but I think it's a risk worth taking. And I think it's worth getting my degree in it because, you know, I'm sure I'm gonna get laid off. I'm sure I'm gonna take a lot of jobs that don't pay. But also, this is a humongous passion for me, not only to write, but to deliver things that are important and that affect local people.”

— Talan Garcia 

“Now we’re starting to worry about AI taking over jobs like mine. And I think that in order to survive, instead of complaining and lamenting about it, you have to accept the reality and figure out how you will fit into that new puzzle.”

— Vera Jimenez, KTLA meteorologist, former el Don editor, winner of two Emmys, three Golden Mikes, and three Golden Pylons

“We need to be transparent about where our values stand.”

— Jakki Padilla 

"It's up in the air. But I feel like we need to take advantage of now and really focus on what we still have left."

— Jarely Olmos, el Don staff writer

“Is it scary? Sure it is but, you know, we can do hard things, and we can overcome these challenges . . . The only way that we become the best versions of ourselves is by confronting things that are challenging and scary.”

— Vera Jimenez

Top image: Row 1 (left to right): Kate Bustamante, Brandon Rowley, Paola Cabrera; Row 2: Ajay Orona, Sarah Bennett,  Jacqueline Schlossman. Photos by Brian Feinzimer/LAist. Composite photo by Samanta Helou Hernandez/LAist.