Veronica Bianco is a journalist from Portland, Oregon. Currently, she’s a student-athlete at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. At CC, she’s a member of the NCAA DI women’s soccer team, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Colorado Collective Outdoor Journal, a reporter and editor for the student newspaper, an Outdoor Education employee, and the principal bassoonist in the chamber orchestra.

In 2026, she won the Helen Verba award and the top scholarship from the Colorado Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. She also won the E.K. Gaylord Award in 2026 and the Ruth Barton Award in 2025, both of which recognize excellence in journalism among students at CC.

She was a 2026 Politico Journalism Institute Participant, a selective program that takes place in Washington, D.C. each year, and followed it up with a six-week internship in Senator Ron Wyden’s office.

In high school, she freelanced for Willamette Week, and alt-weekly in Portland. She spent the summer after her freshman year of college as a news intern there, covering housing, local politics, unions, and more.

Veronica graduated from Grant High School in Portland, where she was the editor-in-chief of the school’s magazine for two years. In that time, she helped uncover a prominent sports reporter’s predatory conduct towards young girls and exposed a Grant teacher’s inappropriate teaching methods. At graduation, she was recognized for excellence in Spanish (in which she also earned a seal of biliteracy), English, and Social Studies.

She loves traveling, playing the guitar, hiking, surfing, skiing, and laughing with friends and family.