Unlike many high school juniors, Gabriel Porras, a 17-year old Lincoln High School Junior, has found a passion and turned it into a reliable news source for Stockton and San Joaquin County.
Porras reports and anchors for the YouTube channel SCW News, broadcasting on local news and events happening in Stockton, as well as reporting for Lincoln High School’s newspaper The Lincolnian.
For about four years, Porras has been reporting on events and has been passionate about journalism for the last five years.
“I watched news as a kid and became fascinated with it,” said Porras.
He said after everything seemed to snowball, he started to take journalism seriously.
“Some of Gabe’s best qualities are his dogged dertermination to be truthful and pursue news every single day,” said Jay Rivera, Porras’ newspaper adviser.
He has been reporting on various issues around the community for about two years on a more serious level, by anchoring for SCW News and sharing his stories on Twitter.
Porras works hard to make sure that the residents of Stockton receive reliable news from an online source.
“My goal in news is to get real information out and stop the spread of false information,” said Porras.
Although he’s a teenager, that doesn’t stop Porras from being on the scene and going out to get his best sources.
He makes sure that his work is credible and that people can rely on him for their daily news.
“We spend a lot of time texting and talking about news coverage, and at his young age he already has a finely tuned sense of what is newsworthy and why,” said Rivera.
Porras sets the perfect example that you can do anything you set your mind to, if you put in the time and effort.
“I hope to be able to impact Stockton in a positive way and report on the good things in Stockton,” said Porras.
