On September 22, KYMA News 13 in Yuma, Arizona released a promotional video for their weekend news and sports coverage at 5 and 10 p.m. The anchor . . . Vanessa Gongora.

Gongora, who graduated with the Class of 2011, has been a star on the rise in recent months. She was hired as a multimedia journalist for KYMA in January, and by June she was their weekend sports anchor. Now, as of the end of August, she has been anchoring the weekend news and sports desk.

This comes on the heels of a career that has included working as an intern for ESPN3 after getting her Bachelor’s in journalism from San Jose State.

“It took a long time to get to where I wanted and have the career I always dreamed of,” said Gongora.

Getting to this place in her career took a lot of sacrifice and courage. When the COVID pandemic hit, Gongora found herself without a sports journalism job since no one was actually playing sports during that time. So, she moved to Denver, Colorado to start over.

She purchased her own equipment, including cameras and sound gear in order to set-up a home studio to create short videos. As her subject, she began shooting at football player camps. She found the stories and worked on creating a reel, her visual resume to send to television stations.

Eventually, she reconnected with an old colleague from her days at ESPN3 who put her in touch with executives at KYMA in Yuma. And there she found her new home and new success.

”I did what I had to do to get here. I never gave up. And the journey isn’t over.“

While Gongora loves reporting the news, sports is still her first love. She loves to play and watch sports. During her time her at Colton High, she was involved in track and field, volleyball, and was soccer captain. She also served as ASB president.

We are sure to hear more from this Colton alum, especially now that she’s the face of weekend news.