Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
As part of California’s pioneering investment in local journalism through the UC Berkeley-based California Local News Fellowship, 38 new early-career journalists have been selected for two-year fellowships in California newsrooms.
The Fellowship program is a multi-year, state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting in California, with a focus on underserved communities. Each year, the program places up to 40 early-career journalism fellows in newsrooms throughout the state for two-year, full-time reporting positions.
Find the selected fellows and newsrooms here.
This year, India Currents was selected to join the cohort of newsrooms to support a Local News fellow and will host Sobhan Hassanvand from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where is is currently pursuing a Master of Journalism degree.
“Robust local journalism is essential for transparency, accountability and coverage of underrepresented communities,” said Christa Scharfenberg, who has led the program since its inception. “We’ve proven that this state-funded model can and does work.”
The California Local News Fellowship currently has more than 70 early-career journalists reporting from every corner of the state, covering immigration, wildfires, housing, healthcare access, city council and school board meetings, and the effects of Trump administration policies. Fellows are working in 35 counties covering more than 90 percent of the state’s population through community newspapers, local nonprofits, ethnic media outlets and public radio stations. They’re producing more than 100 stories a week that would otherwise go untold.
The 2025 fellows — the third cohort to date — are funded by the state’s first allocation of $25 million, spearheaded by former State Sen. Steve Glazer. California State Sen. Catherine Blakespear and Assemblymember Marc Berman recently led legislative efforts to allocate an additional $15 million to expand the popular program for two more years. The new funding will continue the reporting fellowships and launch new editing fellowships and newsroom leadership, and sustainability training led by the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.
Following an intensive orientation at UC Berkeley in early September, the new fellows will live and work for two years in the communities where they are assigned, covering breaking news and reporting enterprise and investigative pieces. In addition to hands-on newsroom experience, fellows receive training and mentorship from the fellowship program in partnership with respected organizations such as the First Amendment Coalition, Big Local, and the Dart Center, and seasoned journalists from across the country.
Fellows and newsrooms are selected through a competitive process led by the fellowship staff and advisory board, with input from journalism faculty at California State University campuses.
Fellows say the experience, while sometimes challenging, has created opportunities for high-impact reporting and laid the groundwork for longer-term journalism jobs.
Tanay Gokhale, who was a part of the Fellowship’s first cohort in 2023 has been working as Community Reporter at India Currents for the past two years. He said that the experience has been a fulfilling immersion into the profession of journalism for him.
“I’ve attended political rallies, profiled entrepreneurs, interviewed politicians and covered dozens of cultural events in the Indian diaspora,” he said. “My biggest takeaway has been the immense value community-driven journalism adds, and the urgent need to support newsrooms like India Currents so that they can continue serving and spotlighting their community for decades to come.”
New publications set to receive fellows include Los Angeles Public Press, Stocktonia, and News from Native California. News from Native California, led by editor Terria Smith, a tribal member of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, is the first publication serving indigenous communities to host a fellow.