Rick Rojas on Curiosity, Courage and the Fundamentals of Journalism
Rick Rojas, a 2006 Free Spirit Scholar, spoke with Freedom Forum in December 2025. Learn more about Freedom Forum’s Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference.
This profile is part of a series that spotlights Free Spirit alumni, exploring their achievements and how the conference helped shape their journeys.
A lot has changed since New York Times Atlanta-based bureau chief Rick Rojas’ career began — but journalism’s fundamentals haven’t.
As much as his dreams and goals have shifted, as many places as he’s lived, and as much as the media landscape has changed, the power of journalism for Rojas remains rooted in being in the rooms where the stories are happening.
For Rojas, journalism was initially a way to explore and get into spaces otherwise inaccessible to a kid from a working-class family in Beaumont, Texas. He says he didn’t have grand ambitions of changing the world; he just wanted to learn and ask questions.
That drive meant Rojas didn’t always fit in. For example, he says that when his hometown’s newly elected mayor spoke to a group of high school students, including Rojas, soon after a city government scandal, people were aghast by his pointed question about how the mayor would regain residents’ trust.
His passion and talent for storytelling landed Rojas a spot at the Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference, a Freedom Forum program for high school juniors interested in journalism and multimedia storytelling.
What's the Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference?
Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference is an engaging, in-depth, five-day summer program for 51 high school juniors (one from each state and the District of Columbia) who “Dream. Dare. Do.”
Participants get insider access to Washington, D.C., newsrooms, connect with other high school juniors from across the U.S. who share their passion for journalism, meet some of the nation’s top journalists and multimedia storytellers, and explore our capital city.
It was through this experience, Rojas says, that he learned it’s valuable for young people to ask tough questions and speak their minds. There, he heard Al Neuharth, founder of Freedom Forum and USA TODAY, speak about his own experience in journalism. He identified with the way Neuharth came from outside the usual pipelines to media and was inspired to see how he also pushed boundaries. Learning about how the First Amendment protects the right to ask tough questions of people in power was a reassuring reminder that everyday people and journalists can hold power accountable.
The experience, Rojas says, opened a world of possibility by connecting him with other people who shared his toughness and curiosity — and by opening doors he’d never imagined walking through.
“Every part of that experience was just something revelatory, just new and surprising.”
— Rick Rojas on participating in Freedom Forum's Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference
Soon after, an internship he landed through the Chips Quinn Scholars program, (now Chips Quinn Reporter Fellowship), a separate initiative founded by Freedom Forum, brought Rojas to The Courier Journal in Kentucky.
His experiences confirmed not only that his persistence and drive could be accepted, but that these traits and skills could fuel a career in journalism.
He reflected at the time, “I spent my days discovering a community that I had never been to before, meeting amazing people and telling their stories. … How awesome is that? Being paid to talk to people and let the rest of the community know what they have to say.”
Rojas continued pushing boundaries for more than a decade as a metro reporter at several publications in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and New York. He learned to handle situations he found intimidating. Journalism became a suit of armor he used as he expanded his comfort zone and developed the courage to knock — to use a metaphor — on tightly bolted doors.
Through those experiences, Rojas realized he’d prefer to be in the field talking to regular people rather than high-profile, powerful figures. His coverage of tragedies like the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and a tornado in Kentucky, taught him the importance of capturing people’s worlds and telling stories about shared humanity. That kind of reporting, he says, gives journalists like him the opportunity to build deeper connections, establish trust, and spend the time it takes to uncover surprising and nuanced stories. Stories that reveal deeper truths about people and what they care about — and that inform broader audiences.
As bureau chief covering the South for The New York Times since 2022, Rojas says he now has a bigger role shaping coverage, but he’s still largely doing the same journalism he did at age 19: seeing things with his own eyes, hearing with his own ears and explaining what he learns. All because he has the curiosity and the courage to keep finding and knocking on doors to the rooms where stories happen every day.
Karen Hansen is a staff writer at Freedom Forum. She can be reached at [email protected].
For any questions on the Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference, please email us at [email protected].
Can Trump Pressure Commanders to Change Name? First Amendment Analysis
Press Freedom and Student Journalism
Related Content