Sacramento Bee brings in promising journalist to cover higher education
A journalist who’s written about schools through a social justice and equity lens has landed in Sacramento to cover higher education institutions locally and across the state.
Tarini Mehta joins The Sacramento Bee as California Higher Education Reporter, a beat that includes two of the nation’s largest, 4-year public university systems. She will help students, parents and young adults navigate affordability and accessibility of colleges in California, in addition to keeping watch over tuition and tax dollars.
“At its core, The Sacramento Bee seeks to serve the needs of its community, and I could not be more excited to join that mission,” she said.
Mehta, originally from New Delhi, India, steps into The Bee newsroom from The Press Democrat, where she covered K-12 and higher education in Napa and Sonoma counties as part of UC Berkeley’s California Local News Fellowship program. Her work at The Press Democrat included a series of stories that revealed allegations of race-based bullying in a small-town public school district and school officials’ tepid response.
“University campuses contain within them a promise of limitless hope,” Mehta said. Through comprehensive coverage of colleges and universities in California, Mehta said she aims to be “a small player in the larger project of unlocking that hope for as many people as possible.”
Mehta has previously written for The Boston Globe, The Mercury News, The Diplomat, India Today, The Hindu and The Print. She has a master’s degree from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Her first day on the job was Monday. She’s reporting to California Political Editor Lauren Chapman.
