Meet: Delwin Portillo

·15 min·1 clip

Delwyn Portillo says he wants journalism to be both "entertaining" and "educating" while staying "scientific."

1. 15 Minute Story episode five features Sid and Delwyn Portillo on the Craig Newmark campus, with Delwyn speaking as a first-semester student from Arkansas and Astoria, Queens. 2. Sid introduces Delwyn as a first-semester Craig Newmark student, and Delwyn explains that the school's "talent" and "scholarship program" drew him to New York City. 3. Delwyn says he wants journalism to "hold people in power to account" and "give voice to the voiceless," which he calls the real reason he wants to work in the field. 4. He describes moving from Arkansas to New York about two years ago for a sales job, then leaving the corporate world after "two years" because it "just wasn't for me." 5. Delwyn says his girlfriend, an accounting-firm worker he met in college, suggested journalism because he "love[s] politics" and "love[s] teaching people." 6. He says New York City has been welcoming, especially Queens and Astoria, and that the food is "the biggest thing keeping me here." 7. Delwyn contrasts Arkansas Tex-Mex with New York restaurants, saying Arkansas gives free chips and salsa while upscale spots in New York make them a paid add-on. 8. He traces a major influence to Trevor Noah and a Florida police-brutality segment about a young autistic Black man, saying Noah made a "dark situation humorous" without losing its seriousness. 9. Delwyn argues that journalists should be political in what they cover, not in how they cover it, and says reporting should be "easily replicable" like "the scientific process." 10. Anyone interested in journalism ethics, New York moves, or Astoria food spots.

As heard by us

A first-semester journalist weighs accountability, humor, and the work of keeping listeners engaged.

15-Minute Story centers Delwyn Portillo, a first-semester student at Craig Newmark, and gives his purpose room to breathe. He talks plainly about coming to journalism school to hold people in power to account and to give voice to the voiceless, while also pointing to the talent…

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Why you'd press play

You get Delwyn Portillo on a live campus mic talking first-semester journalism, Trevor Noah, and why reporting should hold power to account.

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