Veronica Backer-Peral ’22 has made significant strides in the world of student journalism at LMU, from getting her start in journalism at The Los Angeles Loyolan to being a Golden Circle Award recipient. Her documentary titled, “Is Democracy Dying?” recently received the Gold Circle Award for Video Documentary by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
Veronica Backer-Peral ’22
Major: Applied Math, Computer Science, and History
Hometown: Pasadena, California
Backer-Peral is a triple major in applied math, computer science, and history from Pasadena, California. She started by working with a team of four to five video journalists at The Los Angeles Loyolan, put together by veteran journalist and journalism lecturer Carol Costello and Tom Nelson, director of Student Media and The Los Angeles Loyolan, to focus on the election 2020 initiative. Also, during her sophomore year, she had attended an event where Costello had a conversation with Steven Levitsky, who co-authored the book “How Democracies Die,” which was hosted by the Global Policy Institute at LMU.
Before attending the event, Backer-Peral had not heard of Levitsky and the importance of the work people were doing to preserve our democracy, especially in relation to the general election. But it’s this event that sparked the connection between these vital questions about American democracy and the work she was doing to interview politicians for the general election.
“It really spoke to me because I thought he made a really strong point about the fact that we take American democracy for granted,” said Backer-Peral. “And that’s something we shouldn’t do because, although it’s unlikely American democracy would die the way other democracies have in the past [with violent coups and revolutions], there’s also a different way democracy can die – from the inside when people start taking democracy for granted and using loopholes to try to get what they want politically instead of respecting democratic institutions.”
Backer-Peral and her team used this concept and the juxtaposition of the current political climate and the upcoming election as questions for each political candidate they got the chance to interview. “as I looked at what candidates in the upcoming election were talking about, they were all talking about important issues, but none of them were talking about democracy,” said Backer-Peral. “So, every time we talked to a candidate in the election, I made a point to ask about democracy.”
Her first crucial presidential interview was with Julián Castro. “I saw him there, so I snuck in behind the kitchens at the event to be able to get an interview with him,” said Backer-Peral. The team thought this would be their most significant interview at the time, but later, they interviewed California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Cory Booker, and Sen. Kamala Harris and other politicians. She asked each of them what they were going to do to preserve democracy, and those responses became her documentary, “Is Democracy Dying?”
In addition to her role with The Los Angeles Loyolan, she also works with the Global Policy Institute at events and conducts independent research while being mentored by Gene Park, director of the institute. Her favorite project while working there was on U.S. and China relations by diving into what fuels America’s sense of competition and what could help ease the tensions.
Next year, Backer-Peral will be executive producing a new intercollegiate initiative called “Climate 360,” where she and the team will be looking for common solutions to address the global climate crisis.
For Backer-Peral, her experience at LMU has been shaped by how she practices Ignatian values and the idea of education of the whole person. “It’s not just happening through my interdisciplinary education. It can also be applied to the experience I have gained by the jobs I have on-campus or the co-curricular activities I’ve participated in,” said Backer-Peral.
This summer, she will be working as an intern at the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, continuing her work for “Climate 360,” and going to visit her family in Spain. Once she graduates, her goal for the future is to pursue a doctorate in economics that would pull together all three of her current majors.