Kimberly Dominguez enrolled in the School of Travel Journalism’s Master in Gastronomic Journalism and Communication with a clear goal: to cover Puerto Rico’s food scene from the inside, with a journalist’s eye. Today she writes about food for El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico’s leading newspaper, after walking in through an internship. It’s one of the career outcomes we most like to tell, because it started exactly the way most of them do: with a final master’s project.
Who is Kimberly Dominguez?
Kimberly is Puerto Rican and was training as a journalist when she decided to specialize in food. In early 2025 she enrolled in the Master in Gastronomic Journalism and Communication, STJ’s online program for people who want to cover food, culture and travel with real journalistic craft. Nine months of coursework later, she closed out her cohort with a final project that already pointed to where she was headed.
What was her final master’s project about?
Her final project, titled “Puerto Rico: A Cuisine Between Tradition and Globalization,” can be watched on STJ’s YouTube channel. In it, Kimberly looks at how Puerto Rican cuisine negotiates, dish by dish, between recipes passed down through generations and the pressure of an increasingly global food offer. It’s the same tension she’d go on to find, now as a working journalist, in every restaurant, café and festival she covered for her newspaper.
How did she land a job at El Nuevo Día?
After finishing the master’s, Kimberly joined GFR Media, El Nuevo Día’s publishing group, as a summer intern. She was placed on the Food and Entertainment desks, writing about restaurants, cafés, cocktail bars and food festivals across the island. The internship did what an internship should: it worked as an extended interview. The newsroom hired her.
That’s exactly the path we design the Master in Gastronomic Journalism and Communication around: internships that stop being a program formality and become the door into a real newsroom.
What she’s published at El Nuevo Día
Since joining the newsroom, Kimberly has been a regular byline in the Food section. A few of her pieces:
- How La Coffeetera grew without losing its identity by opening a second location in Ocean Park.
- The launch of Melty’s, Puerto Rico’s first 100% local frozen yogurt shop.
- A collective tribute to chef Mario Pagán, cooked up among friends and colleagues.
- A profile of Mario Pagán himself: from the young man who left architecture behind to the chef now opening doors for others.
- “La hora feliz,” PRoduce’s weekly food initiative in Santurce.
- Camuy’s mondongo festival, where 1,500 pounds of stew were served in a single edition.
- Miramar Records, the listening bar built around good music, cocktails and tapas.
Her full body of work can be followed on her author page at El Nuevo Día.
Why we’re telling this story
At STJ, we measure the master’s program by what happens after the last class: which newsrooms, which magazines, which outlets open their doors to the people who train with us. Kimberly’s story is, right now, exactly that: from a final project about her island’s cuisine to a byline, week after week, in the newspaper most people on that island actually read.
If you also want to cover the food of your own country (or anyone else’s) with a journalist’s eye, here’s everything you need to know about the Master in Gastronomic Journalism and Communication: program, faculty and upcoming intakes.
