Meet Our Reporters

Ariel Castillo is a multimedia journalism major at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). She is currently a student reporter for KTEP, El Paso’s public radio station, and she is also a part of the staff of Borderzine.com, the UTEP journalism capstone project that covers life on the U.S., Mexico border. She is passionate about telling stories of people in her community. She was previously a writer for Minero, UTEP’s student magazine, and worked as an editorial intern at Texas Highways Magazine. She enjoys playing indie-alternative music on the ukulele, hanging out with her family, and being outdoors.

Rio Grande Valley native, Ariadna Garza, is a first-generation undergraduate student at Texas Wesleyan University. Her goal is to represent the Latinx population in the media by showcasing the resiliency and diversity of the community. Ariadna is currently a marketing and communications intern at the City of Grand Prairie. She is also the social media manager for her school’s athletic department. To de-stress, Ariadna produces artistic TikToks featuring her original poetry. In that platform, she shares her experiences as she navigates life as a child of immigrants to the U.S. and expectations placed on being the eldest daughter in a Latinx household. She hopes to pave the way for other Latinx first-generation college students. 

Cristela Jones is a graduate student of the University of Texas at Austin’s MA journalism program and is set to graduate in 2022. Cristela’s work has appeared in the Texas Standard, Reporting Texas, San Antonio Current. She was an editor at The University Star, Texas State University’s student-run newspaper and has reported on a broad range of subjects, including health disparities, climate change and education. Cristela is passionate about amplifying underrepresented Black and brown communities through powerful storytelling.

Thalía Guzmán is a senior at Texas A&M University-San Antonio pursuing a bachelor’s in communication. She’s a writer for the university’s student-run magazine, El Espejo, and manages its social media platforms. She is passionate about developing her multimedia storytelling skills. Thalía is a proud first-generation and San Antonio native. She enjoys spending time with her family and her fur-child Maxwell. She loves chasing tacos trucks.

Kevin Vu is a junior studying journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He loves connecting with people by listening to what they have to say and helping them tell their stories. He is currently an associate news editor at his school’s newspaper, The Daily Texan, and a freelance reporter at the Austin American-Statesman. Previously, Kevin covered breaking news, research and COVID-19 at The Daily Texan. He enjoys playing volleyball and cooking Asian dishes like Korean galbi-jjim and Indian tikka masala in his free time. 

St. Louis, Missouri native Destiny Alexander works primarily in digital media, using vibrant colors and characters to communicate ideas and stories through the language of illustration. Alexander obtained her B.F.A in Studio Art from the University of Texas, Austin. Alexander’s illustrations have been published in The Daily Texan since 2018. She currently lives and works in Dallas, TX.