Florida Gulf Coast Univ. Student Earns ABC News Honor

Oct. 6, 2010— -- Florida Gulf Coast University student, Alex Pena, 21, has been named ABC News on Campus "Roving Reporter of the Year" and with the distinction, Pena earned an all-expense-paid trip to New York City to visit ABC News' headquarters.

Last spring, Pena submitted a firsthand report on the Mexican drug wars about how citizens used Twitter to stay informed when escalating violence in the region impeded traditional reporting. That story, among others, caught the attention of ABC News, earning him the Roving Reporter award.

ABC News on Campus is a partnership with top journalism schools designed to educate and mentor talented college students. The program also invites student journalists at accredited colleges and universities to contribute as part of the program's Roving Reporter initiative.

Through the Roving Reporter program, Pena has pitched and produced many stories for ABCNews.com on everything from BASE jumpers to a self-proclaimed college dating guru, to a video about the escalating violence in Mexico.

Pena was thrilled that the quality of the stories he submitted had garnered both the esteem of working journalists and an award.

"It proves to me hard work and a lot of persistence will bring you a long way -- in this case, to NYC!"

Pena's path to journalism started simply enough. In his senior year of high school, he began work on his school's entertainment news television show, which aired on the campus' closed circuit TV. His interest in journalism solidified there, after he shot and edited skate videos with his friends.

"Once I got to college, I decided I wanted to be a journalist, but there was no journalism major," Pena said. "So I had to make do with what I had. I found an old camera and started posting videos on YouTube." Those videos included coverage of President Obama's visit to Naples, Fla., and a homeless wedding in the south Florida city.

But that simple beginning took a turn when Pena began taking self-funded reporting trips to some dangerous locales. On his own initiative, he went to Juarez, Mexico, in the middle of one of the most violent drug wars in history, and took a second trip, to Haiti; the day after that country was devastated by the worst earthquake in its history.