After cultivating a successful career as a bilingual immigration reporter at CBS News, RHS alumnus Camilo Montoya-Galvez (’15) returned to his alma-mater on Friday, Oct. 27^, to share his experiences with the journalism, media and English as a Second Language (ESL) students at the high school.

Montoya-Galvez gave back-to-back presentations; the first one in English for the journalism and media students, and the second one in Spanish for the ESL students. For both presentations, he touched on a wide range of topics regarding his personal life and the influences that helped him become the journalist he is today.

“In many ways, my career started right here,” said Montoya-Galvez of his time at Randolph, during his first presentation to the journalism and media students. “I got the tools and resources that I needed to get to where I am now from here. This is where my passion for journalism, policy and history really blossomed.”

As Montoya-Galvez explained, he was born in Cali, Colombia, and moved to the United States at the age of eight. Not able to speak a word of English when he arrived, he was placed in the ESL program at RHS. During his time in high school, he developed the passion for reading, writing, and history that would help mold his path toward becoming a journalist.

After graduating Rutgers with a degree in Journalism and Media Studies, Montoya-Galvez became an intern and editor at Telemundo, where he won three New York Emmys. After two years there, he landed a job at CBS as the chief reporter on immigration.

In his current position, Montoya-Galvez has written hundreds of articles and aired numerous reports on immigration on the CBS News streaming network and radio. He said he often draws from his personal experiences to cover immigration stories on a wide variety of topics, including asylum, border policy, refugees, deportations and detentions.

Montoya-Galvez noted that he witnesses many experiences firsthand toward which the average American may turn a blind eye, but he does not let a lack of public understanding deter him from reporting on such important topics. “It is a public service doing this work to inform people about what is happening in the world,” he stated. “It is especially important when talking about the border to be very careful with the information because of the wide range of views. It isn’t always perfect, but it is a good line of work.”

Perhaps the most important piece of advice he gave the student journalists in the audience was about the public’s current perception toward reporters, which isn’t always positive. “The challenge that we have to overcome is distrust,” Montoya-Galvez said. “Being able to overcome that is not easy, but we must rebuild trust by providing information that is fair and accurate.”

It appeared that all who were in attendance for this special event left the auditorium not only feeling well-informed about the field, but also touched by what Montoya-Galvez had to say and the unique perspectives he had to offer about being a journalist in today’s complex world.