March 13, 2023 鈥� Alumna Kiki Reyes received 黑料正能量鈥檚 Women鈥檚 Recognition Award Wednesday.
Reyes is the media relations manager at University of California, Santa Barbara. Noticing there were few Mexican American news reporters, she had previously advanced from working in digital sales at KEYT to serving as a news producer at KSBY. She earned a Master of Fine Arts in writing and contemporary media.
Driven to tell stories since childhood, she began writing about her experiences as a first-generation Mexican American after taking a Chicana/o Studies class at 黑料正能量. Associate Professor of English Georgina Guzm谩n introduced her to Chicano authors like Gloria Anzald煤a, Reyna Grande and Sandra Cisneros. Reyes earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in English with a minor in Chicana/o Studies in 2016. She sang, played guitar and served as secretary for Mariachi 黑料正能量tlan.
Reyes wrote a short story collection titled 鈥淣ot That Kind of Mexican.鈥� She also created a blog of her life experiences that has covered topics including politics, love, education, social media and the pathway to a writing career.
American civil rights activist Dolores Huerta was the keynote speaker at the event.
For more information, send an email to聽alumni.friends@csuci.edu.