Student journalism is more than just another major. For us at La Voz News, journalism is not just something we want to pursue, but something we have to.

A working government needs journalists to hold people in power accountable and everyone, specifically younger generations, must understand the importance of journalism.

The De Anza College community can benefit in so many ways by supporting our journalism department.

The campus will stay informed about pressing issues that affect students’ educational careers, while at the same time supporting budding journalists and encouraging them to not give up in their career choices too soon.

Unfortunately, the largest issue newspapers face today is a passive and uncaring reading public.

The truth is, people do care. When La Voz reported on the baseball head coach being put on administrative leave and the entire baseball community fighting to get their coach back, real people were affected – players, parents and future recruiters.

De Anza’s massive 2018 budget cuts and the possibility of eliminating programs also affected real people.

Some of the programs such as the men’s and women’s tennis teams, massage therapy and paralegal studies were the main reason many students decided to attend De Anza, yet they were cut because of the enrollment crisis.

If it was not for La Voz covering many “boring meeting” that nobody also went to, nobody would have know about these cuts. The college’s Marketing Department won’t make these announcement simply because it is not their job.

The DASB senate also does not have to disclose what they do in their meetings except in cryptic online minutes.

But the fact is, student government is managing your money and you deserve to know what they are doing with that money.

You deserve to know how senators behave at meetings, what their budget looks like and where they allocate money, which ultimately affects programs that help students with their education.

La Voz has also covered an array of important issues that might have never not come to light such as hate crimes on campus or Foothill-De Anza police arresting people with guns and drugs.

But we also cover great things about this college such as diversity. When the Office of Equity brought in powerful speaker Amy Iwasaki, a woman who was incarcerated with her family at an internment camp under Executive Order 9066, where she spent three years of her childhood, La Voz’s story amplified her voice.

Black history month, women’s rights, mental health – all of these events that help empower students would go unnoticed without our reporters there.

But when we spend countless hours working and slaving away on our laptops, trying to get important information posted, and hardly anyone reads it, we get discouraged.

De Anza students, staff and faculty must come together to support our student journalist by engaging with our content.

Read our stories, follow our social media @lavoznews. Be a part of the community you are in.

It is easy to become part of our La Voz News student media. Take our journalism classes.

But you don’t have to be a journalist to support journalism. You can just do your part as an active citizen in our community and read.