Robert Faturechi, former enterprise editor for The Daily Bruin

Jessica is a fantastic photojournalist, and not just because she has a strong command of cameras. She has an uncanny ability to tell complex stories with her photos, capturing the human condition accurately and compassionately.

In her senior year at UCLA, Jessica completed a long-term journalism package on undocumented students at our university. She followed several students from Los Angeles to San Francisco and Boston for several months. The result was a special window into the lives of a community not often covered by the media and often forgotten by much of our college community.

Amy Emmert, adviser for The Daily Bruin

Jessica's ability to connect on a very intimate level with her sources and her passion for seeking and telling rarely heard stories are qualities that I think distinguish her from most student reporters. Jessica has been able to gain sources' trust, even those, like the undocumented students she covered, who have a lot at risk in giving a reporter such public access to their lives. Even in her studies and pursuits outside of the Daily Bruin, Jessica demonstrates commitment to these principles, working on documentaries that look at marginalized sections of our state's population and other such projects. Jessica is very modest about her journalistic talent, and the really wonderful thing about that is that she seems extremely comfortable with the idea that there is always something new for her to learn, and she happily seeks out opportunities to broaden her skills. Jessica has also won a prestigious Daily Bruin scholarship that will take her and a partner to China this fall to look at the conditions in which UCLA apparel is made and also analyze what the UCLA brand means abroad.

Saba Riazati, editor-in-chief for The Daily Bruin

Journalism is not limited to writing, it is about relaying stories and inspiring readers in some form. Jessica has an incredible eye for capturing the real emotion behind each of her portrait subjects. As a photojournalist, it’s easy to see that her visual skills have leaked on to her writing because the rich language she uses really allows readers to visualize and absorb the details behind each story.

Last year, Jessica was assigned to cover an immigration rally. At the event, undocumented students spoke about what they thought were injustices in access to higher education. While on assignment, Jessica was inspired to pursue the immigration issue from the perspective of students directly affected by policies. Her purpose was purely to relay stories and allow readers to visualize the issue on an entirely different level. Jessica teamed up Robert Faturechi to write profile pieces, but because she is such a forward thinking journalist, she insisted that she team up with Alene Tchekmedyian (the director of new media at the Daily Bruin) to utilize another medium for telling the story: online audio slideshows. She has a natural talent for story telling and she understands the bigger picture: being a journalist is not about good writing, it’s about connecting with the reader.

Source | The Daily Bruin
Hardships of being an undocumented immigrant force student to work long hours to finish school

Source | The Daily Bruin
Nick Salcedo remembers hearing bullets whiz by him – “they sound exactly like they do in the movies” – and having a rocket-propelled grenade shot directly at him while serving in Iraq.