Humberto Giles-Sanchez

Humberto was born in Waukegan, Illinois, and later raised in Central Illinois, in the twin cities of Bloomington-Normal. Growing up, he feared talking in public, but that all changed in his junior year of high school. That was when he started to invest his time on stage, performing in musicals heavily and plays for the school theater program. Ever since then, Humberto began to realize that he liked performing, and better yet, liked having people see the art that he was making.

Fast forward to his college years. Humberto was stuck trying to find what he wanted to do for the first two years of his undergraduate education, he took two journalism classes for the heck of it. Come to find out, that's when he began to realize that he liked telling the stories of people who made an impact on the "local" community, no matter how small that impact may be.

The biggest question he gets while interviewing somebody is: Why does he care? His answer: If I don't, then who will? This has been a constant thought process in his work since he graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2022. Being able to work with the surrounding community, whatever the town, city, or municipality, it doesn't matter; to have the chance to talk and tell the stories of the people who live there is his goal as a reporter… as a journalist.

Feel free to reach out with story ideas, food place suggestions, or hidden gems of the Black Hills.