On Wednesday, April 16, 2025, the Skyline View Staff learned best practices and gained insight from San Francisco Chronicle’s own: Carlos Avila Gonzales. He covered national and international assignments in his 28 years at the Chronicle. Most notably, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and worked extensively in Latin America, covering elections, natural disasters, economic policy, and immigration — even crossing through the desert in Northern Mexico with immigrants through smugglers’ camps. Other notable works include short documentaries on a doctor providing care in the Ngorongoro Crater region of Tanzania and on a group working to eliminate child slavery in Nepal.
Gonzales came to speak to the up-and-coming newshounds on behalf of Ron Chand, a Career Readiness Coordinator from Strategic Partnerships & Workforce Development (SPWD) who has begun liaising with Skyline College’s faculty to hold events like this. These events allow students to learn from industry professionals and develop best practices in an academic setting before heading out into the professional world.
Professor Nancy Kaplan-Biegel, advisor to Skyline View, asked the staff to come prepared with questions that only someone like Gonzales could answer. They discussed what it meant to be a journalist in the age of fast-as-light information propagation, the adage that “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes,” and the responsibility of being arbiters of truth.
Further, Gonzales spoke about having an authorial voice and finding a distinct style to set them apart from the rest. Gonzales shared an anecdote about how he was one of the few photographers who was allowed to fly a drone above the TransAmerica building and how it offered a new perspective that most have never seen. Gonzales told the staff to always think of perspective and storytelling in journalism and how these play into conveying important information to the masses.
All in all, the staff appreciated Gonzales’ expertise and insight into growing their professional portfolio and developing a unique writing style, especially in a field that is being undermined by the rise of “Artificial Intelligence” and social media companies that drive readers to their platforms rather than news websites themselves.
For more information about SPWD and the programs that it offers to students and faculty alike please email: skylinecareers@smccd.edu
If you are student and would like to make an appointment with a Career Readiness Coordinator please visit: https://skylinecollege.edu/careercenter/appointments.php
Article by Ron Chand
Photo credit: Claudia Paz
Headshot provided by Carlos Avila Gonzales
