This summer, three Bay Area students were awarded journalism scholarships through the Felix Elizalde La Raza Education Fund.
The fund created in honor of the late journalist Felix Elizalde aims to support Hispanic/Latino students pursuing journalism or media studies in the Bay Area.
We hope to financially assist students in hopes of further inspiring them to continue their career path and become part of the next generation of storytellers.
This year’s awardees are:
Daniela Sandoval is a rising second-year graduate student on the multimedia track at UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism. Originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, she was raised in the San Gabriel Valley and the Inland Empire. This summer, she is reporting for Mission Local in San Francisco and preparing to tackle her thesis project in the fall. Daniela aspires to work in audience engagement or become a correspondent. In her free time, she runs marathons, loves going to the movies, and spends time with her dog, Bolita.
Maximiliano (Max) Garcia Ortiz is a student at San Jose State studying Journalism with a minor in Sports Journalism. “I’m from San Diego, CA, and I’m a proud first-generation college student who’s been passionate about sports and journalism since childhood. This scholarship will be a significant help in furthering my education, allowing me to focus more on my studies and journalism. It will also provide me with some extra support for any materials or equipment I might need in the future.”
Liliana Cortés is a bilingual journalist whose reporting spans from Colombia to the United States. Liliana has covered rural communities, survivors of armed conflict, and the Latinx community in the U.S. Her investigative work uses data to examine corporate environmental practices, climate justice, and police misconduct. A 2025 fellow at Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program, she is a video journalist with a focus on documentaries. Liliana holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley.