Report for America Corps Member Joins Our Newsroom

Report for America is a national service program that places emerging journalists into local newsrooms across the United States to report on under-covered issues and communities.

As a competitively selected host newsroom partner with Report for America, we’re delighted today to announce that Troy Aidan Sambajon is joining the San Francisco Public Press as our incoming corps member starting in July.

Born and raised in Vallejo, Troy began reporting for local newspapers while studying at UC Santa Barbara. Over the past three years, he has covered housing, affordability and education in Boston for The Christian Science Monitor, receiving awards for both his human-interest storytelling and housing reporting. Troy says he is eager to return to the Bay Area and apply his experience and growing skills here:

I’m excited to join the San Francisco Public Press as a Report for America corps member and examine the forces shaping San Francisco. My investigations will explain how federal actions together with City Hall responses affect local democracy.

Some of the questions I’m asking as I approach this beat include: Where are the key opportunities for public participation in determining local policies? How do our challenges and solutions in San Francisco look in comparison to other Bay Area cities? And what are the roles of community resilience, mutual aid and creativity in these challenging times?  
I will focus on human-centered, practical reporting that elevates voices often missing from coverage while holding institutions accountable in a fair, rigorous and accessible way.

Above all, I will aim to deepen curiosity about the Bay Area’s future while elevating public conversation through fact-driven journalism. Whether covering politics and City Hall or grassroots community efforts, I strive to report with fairness, empathy and curiosity.