Shandel Menezes is a News Reporter for NBC 7 San Diego in California. Menezes was born in Willingboro, New Jersey, and was raised in Wilmington, North Carolina. Both of her parents are immigrants. Her mother is from Georgetown, Guyana, while her father is from Kingston, Jamaica.
She credits her mother for never letting her stay away from her Guyanese roots — while connecting her to the country through some of its well-known meals. “My favorite meal she’d make was curry chicken or curry beef with dhal puri…it still is, actually,” Shandel Menezes said.
Menezes graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with her Bachelors in Broadcast Journalism in 2020.
During her undergraduate studies, she was involved in student clubs like the Caribbean Student Association (CSA) at UNC-Chapel Hill.
“One of my favorite memories was when we put on our own carnival on campus. So many of our classmates had never been to one and it was so fun to play mas and expose them to the music and food we grew up with.”
Aside from the Caribbean Student Association, Menezes served as the Site Director for “Movement of Youth” — a nonprofit mentoring program at UNC-Chapel Hill dedicated to connecting college and high school students through academic programming.
While remaining connected to her Broadcast Journalism track, she served as the President of the Carolina Association of Black Journalists (CABJ) during her final year as an undergraduate student. While serving as a Reporter for Carolina Week — the weekly student television news program from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Prior to her role at NBC 7 San Diego, Menezes worked as a Reporter and Multimedia Journalist for KYTX CBS19 in Tyler, Texas, and completed a fellowship with ABC11 in Durham, North Carolina.
Menezes says she hopes that being an American with Guyanese roots will show as proof that “we are everywhere and involved in everything!”
“I want young Guyanese women to remember to live this life for themselves. No external validation compares to the peace you find when you decide to pursue your passions unapologetically. All of them. Don’t allow others, or even yourself, to box you in. I’ll never say it’s easy — but I will say it’s worth it.”
She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the San Diego Association of Black Journalists.
