Angela Ramirez, who is now attending Santa Rosa Junior College, was one of three scholarship recipients chosen by the Press Democrat Journalism Trust.
Angela Ramirez found her passion for journalism at Analy High School in Santa Rosa, and she’s continuing it this academic year at Santa Rosa Junior College.
Born in Jalisco, Mexico and raised in Sonoma County since age 2, Ramirez developed a love of writing and reporting — and even the business side of journalism — in high school.
During her time as editor-in-chief of the Analy school paper, the West County World, she is credited with getting the news organization out of debt, building its online presence and, when it comes to the newspaper itself, changing its printing company from one on the East Coast to a local printer in Santa Rosa.
Also during her time at Analy and working for the West County World, she noticed most students were not aware of the newspaper on campus. So staff of the student-run newspaper created an Instagram account for the paper. “We were able to interact with students, set up meetings and coordinate polls,” said Ramirez.
She also forged some innovative partnerships, collaborating with students at CASTLE Preschool & Child Care in Sebastopol, where she worked part-time as an after-school aide, to teach them to create comics for the West County World.
That collaboration, she said, provided unique educational opportunities to young people who “otherwise would be oblivious to the world of journalism and creative writing.”
Ramirez stopped working at CASTLE preschool a month after after graduating high school and started working at Tree House Hollow Preschool in Sebastopol.
“Working as an after-school aide at CASTLE provided me with an opportunity to dip my toes in the field. I really rocked with it. My personality matched,” said Ramirez.
This semester, she also is attending Santa Rosa Junior College and will be there for two years before she plans to attend a four-year university.
She identifies as a first-generation student, a first-generation immigrant, and a first-generation journalist and teacher.
“I am beyond grateful for the [Persons] scholarship, it opened a lot of opportunities I could not have predicted. It gave me peace of mind,” Ramirez said.
The 2024 Norma & Evert Persons Journalism Scholarship, presented by The Press Democrat Journalism Trust, was established by Norma Persons in memory of her husband, Evert Persons, who was the publisher of The Press Democrat for over 40 years.
The trust’s board voted this year to grant scholarships annually and expand the number of awardees to three. In past years, scholarships were granted to two students biennially.
Recipients get an annual scholarship of $2,500, up to $10,000 total during their undergraduate careers.
Ramirez intends to use the scholarship money for student housing, college expenses, materials and gas. “This scholarship,” she said, provides “security for me.”
Bios of all three winners can be found at www.pdjt.org/scholarships/scholarship-awardees.
