Growing up, Iridiana Barcenas (’21 BA, Broadcasting), the daughter of Mexican immigrants, saw how critical it is to ensure everyone in a community has access to information about current events.
“My family does not know English and lacked the education and the language to get information,” she says. “I know how crucial it is to keep your community informed, and your community is everyone—even if they don’t know the language or are afraid to speak up and ask questions. Journalism is the voice of those who don’t have one.”
As a broadcasting student at UTA, Barcenas worked at UTA News en Español, developing skills that would allow her to be a voice for the voiceless in her community. While she focused on completing her degree, her goals got a boost from a Hispanic Communicators DFW (HCDFW) scholarship.
HCDFW is an organization of journalists, public relations and marketing professionals, educators, and others committed to the field of communication and furthering the visibility and role of Latinos within communication-related fields. Barcenas was one of three Hispanic communicators at UTA to receive an HCDFW scholarship. The others were Krissiha Lagos (’21 BA, Broadcasting) and Rocio Hernandez (’21 BA, Public Relations and Advertising).
“I feel like thanks to the scholarship, I was able to be a student,” says Barcenas, who is now an assignment editor at KTLM-TV Telemundo 40. “And once I had that diploma in my hands, no one could take it away from me. Education is powerful. It’s freedom.”
