Scholarship Awardees

Hana Freedenburg is a passionate high school senior from Analy High School who will be attending San Jose State University to major in Journalism and Mass Communications. She has a deep appreciation for the power of storytelling, inspired by her diverse family history and a love for sports, which she sees as a way to connect communities. As President and Editor-in-Chief of her school’s journalism club, Hana demonstrated remarkable leadership by successfully recruiting a new staff, securing funding through grant writing and community fundraising, and launching an online presence for the school paper. Beyond her leadership role, she has written on a variety of topics, from local events to women’s sports and an article on the Sebastopol Police Department to help bridge the gap between law enforcement and students. Hana’s goal is to become a sports journalist, using her platform to highlight often-overlooked stories and create a space for future generations of women in historically male-dominated fields. Her commitment to journalism is further demonstrated by her paid internship with the Sebastopol Police Department, where she manages social media content, and her recent acceptance into the School of New York Times’ two-week Sports Storytelling and Journalism course.

Bryan Fructuoso-Zurita is a dedicated storyteller who discovered his passion for journalism while attending Santa Rosa Junior College. He served as the Co-Editor-in-Chief and is currently the Multimedia Editor at The Oak Leaf, the student-run news publication. Bryan’s commitment to community is evident through his leadership roles in organizations like M.E.Ch.A., where he helped organize “La Posada,” a traditional holiday event that welcomed over 500 people. He also serves as a member of the Sonoma County Immigrant Rights Coalition, advocating for the rights of immigrants and farmworkers. Additionally, Bryan has done a communications and graphic design internship with the City of Santa Rosa, assisted in the production of a PBS television series on climate change, and created a compelling short documentary about a Roseland street vendor to help elevate voices from an underrepresented neighborhood. Through these experiences, Bryan has developed a passion for using journalism to document and share stories that matter most to his community. With this scholarship, Bryan will continue to elevate underrepresented voices, document meaningful stories, and pursue journalism with purpose and heart.

Reid Carpenter is a dedicated journalism student at Santa Rosa Junior College, where he serves as an editor for the school’s online and print publication, The Oak Leaf. As a returning student, he balances his academic pursuits with working full-time, while developing skills in writing, editing, print layout, and podcasting. During his time at The Oak Leaf, Reid has covered diverse beats, from student government meetings to local sports. He has written feature articles on significant community issues, including a piece on the debate surrounding the return of School Resource Officers. For his dedication and strong reporting, he received the inaugural Brandon McCapes Memorial Award and was asked to serve as the publication’s news editor. Reid is especially interested in journalism’s role as the “fourth estate,” believing it’s a vital check and balance on those in power. He is passionate about telling the stories of people from disadvantaged backgrounds, with the hope that his work will be impactful and bring about positive change. This scholarship will help to support Reid as he finishes his studies, and eventually pursue a masters in Journalism.

It’s never too late to do what you love. Debbie’s path to journalism arose in the past few years after discovering a passion and talent for story-telling while studying at Santa Rosa Junior College. Throughout her studies, Debbie has explored both traditional reporting and digital reporting through audio journalism and podcasting. Since 2023, Debbie has been a part of Santa Rosa Junior College’s newspaper, The Oak Leaf, working on multiple media platforms to share her stories. “I really feel my role will be as a producer of stories and news”, she noted in her application. You can listen to one of Debbie’s recent podcasts about Meals On Wheels Funding for The Oak Leaf here.  A multi-talented communicator Debbie is also a DJ With KOWS radio, a volunteer-run station for West County listeners. This semester she will be an interning with KRCB radio and continuing her work with The Oak Leaf. With the support of this scholarship, she looks forward to continuing her pursuit of journalism and writing.

Angela’s family moved from Jalisco, Mexico to California when she was two years old. Since then, she has experienced a difficult home life that despite all odds inspired her to pursue journalism throughout her time at Analy High School, where she recently graduated and ended her term as Editor-in-Chief for The West County World. Angela made an incredible impact on her school’s paper, including getting the paper out of debt from previous leaders and changing their printing company from the East Coast to a local printer in Santa Rosa. Her dedication to journalism goes beyond school commitments, as she has already started a Digital Certificate in Journalism at SRJC and even collaborates with her students at CASTLE Pre-School to create comics for the paper, “giving opportunities to those who otherwise would be oblivious to the world of journalism and creative writing!”.  Angela’s pursuits of journalism have not come easy, and she has sacrificed more than most to be where she is today. Her grit shines through in her work, and we are fortunate to have such a devoted journalist rise in our community.

Their journalism advisor Anne Belden put it best, “Rosemary can do it all”. Rosemary is an editor at Santa Rosa Junior College’s newspaper The Oak Leaf, and a former editor of The Maria Carrillo newspaper The Puma Prensa. A jack-of-all-trades, Rosemary can handle the production process for one of their articles from start to finish, including interviewing sources, taking their photos, writing the article, and designing multi-page spreads using InDesign. Starting their journalism career at home during the COVID-19 lockdown, Rosemary has been a force to be reckoned with ever since. Not only did they help their high school newspaper re-establish itself upon returning to campus, but also created and hosted a new podcast arm of the paper known as The Pawd. It was while working for that high school newspaper, following the fatal stabbing at Montgomery High School in March of 2023, that they knew journalism would be their future. They have since extended their knowledge and mentorship to fellow editors and lowerclassmen leaving a lasting legacy at The Puma Prensa and The Oak Leaf. Looking forward, Rosemary is continuing their editorial duties at The Oak Leaf and accompanying them for a semester abroad in London this upcoming school year. Beyond their journalistic endeavors, Rosemary is taking 19 units at Santa Rosa Junior College (one class more than what is considered full-time) and works multiple part-time jobs. In Rosemary’s words, “I believe the practice of journalism is best employed when it’s used to tell others’ stories. Everyone has a story that deserves to be told, and I see it as my role to do that”.

Journalism seems to be in Vince’s DNA. As a student at Sonoma Valley High School, Vince was a trusted source of information for reporters at The Index-Tribune – and quickly earned early stripes as a student reporter for the publication. Now a student at UC Davis – which does not have a journalism program – Vince is channeling his efforts into the widest areas of interdisciplinary study. Following the advice of a journalism advisor, Vince sees a broad educational base as the best way to better cover diverse topics – from science to economics to politics. Where other students participate in extracurricular activities like athletics or social endeavors, Vince has been a staff writer at The California Aggie, the university newspaper since 2023. He writes weekly articles for the print and digital products; his reporting has uncovered dysfunctional student government, a multi-million dollar pouring rights contract and the addition of new academic majors. He also works as a reporter for KDVS, the university’s student radio station. From Vince’s application letter: “I continue to pursue journalism because I love the work: the interviewing, the writing, the editing, the late nights, the rewriting and everything else. I believe that the news will give me a place to distinguish myself and make an impact on actual people.”

In our industry, being able to tell a story with creativity is a rare feat. As journalists, we can crank out a story with the facts and call it a day. But the really great journalists are those who take readers on journeys. It can take years of mastering the craft to be able to stretch those confines of a news or feature or investigative story with descriptive language, creative sentence structure or storytelling skills.

Yet, all three of those abilities are strong points in Brad Butterfield’s writing. Butterfield shows strong promise as a journalist and will undoubtedly succeed on his chosen career path. He possesses a tenacity for writing that illuminates itself through the myriad topics he covers in his community, from fishing boats and law enforcement to diving into the realities of being homeless. In his thoughtfully descriptive writing, he owns the ability to not just take the reader into his community, but to truly make them care about the people and places in his story; this shows true promise as a journalist.

His voice is witty, caring and bold, asking questions of the world that are necessary for continuing progress. It is a voice any community would be lucky to have in its service. We are honored to award Brad Butterfield the Gaye LeBaron Writing Scholarship for 2023.

2021 Scholarship Awardee

2021 Scholarship Awardee