Yafa Dias

Yafa Dias

RGNN Academy Class of 2017 (Havana & Trinidad, Cuba)

As a new up-and-coming journalist, I have always been interested in writing news articles and have even won a Keystone Press Award during my sophomore year of college. I am also interested in magazine story telling, photo essays and producing short informative videos. As an undergraduate, I have strengthened my skills in Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, iMovie and several more photo and video applications. During my magazine writing class, a passion inside me had risen driving to speak out against skewed media stories. For example, witnessing stereotypes, misrepresentations, sexism and false accusations, by biased media organizations disturbed me to the degree of action. I have decided that if the news outlets that we watch every day will not fact check their stories, then I certainly will. As a woman of color who identifies as a Palestinian-American, I know firsthand what can happen when journalists drop the ball. In journalism listening to people is key and is a gift that I proudly have kept through my visits to the Middle-East. Honest reporting allows citizens to respect journalists and this is a personal character trait that I hold near and dear to me. Reporting on immigrants, and refugees requires strong journalism skills and even stronger personal traits, I am proud to carry both. My career goals are the following - one day become a magazine writer for Jadaliyya, a film maker that documents cultural appropriation, and a news producer for Al-Jazeera. I also would like to be a foreign correspondent based in the Middle East. Lastly, I would also like to create a niche magazine for people of color that have been neglected or dismissed by their own governments and biased media companies. Creating this magazine will shed light on their hardships which is what a journalists should do, listen.