Mariana Barragan is a reporter for The Dateline. Mariana is a former AFJROTC cadet, where she served as the Academics Officer and Executive Officer and won the Reserve Officers Association Award. In 2023, Mariana earned her Associate Degree in Arts from Lone Star College. She received a Merit Transfer Scholarship from the University of Houston-Downtown, where she is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies with a focus in Digital Media. Her love for all communication mediums has pushed her to be a show host for UHD’s iRadio act as a facilitator for UHD’s Center for Public Deliberation on the issues of Inclusivity and Free Speech and Challenges at the U.S.-Mexico Border. She is also a bilingual writer intern for Latinitas Magazine. When she is not writing, she is at the movie theater watching films of all genres and rating them on her Letterboxd account. Her love for films began when she watched the VHS tape of Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982), at the age of six, and her favorite film of all time is Peter Weir’s “The Truman Show” (1998).