Jimmy Heath

An opportunity presented itself Mr. Chambers and our class. The legendary Jimmy Heath was on NCCU's campus, teaching and talking about his life's experiences and just sharing his knowledge in general. At first I had no idea who Jimmy Heath was but I was told he was a brilliant instrumentalist who loved Jazz. So i texted my Auntie Lane during his lecture to tell her who was at Central because she LOVES Jazz.. She responded that I was in the presence of a genius and a legendary musician, and i should appreciate that opportunity to hear him speak. At first i thought he was only going to talk about music and i felt that i might not be able to connect with the things he was talking about. Life struggles, and how he got to where he is today. It wasn't easy and nothing was given to him on a silver platter, he networked and worked hard, to get where he is, and never loosed focus.....He had a passion for something and never let it step in the way.

Success can be disguised

round 11 Ashleigh and I were walking to Mr. Chambers office after our eleven o'clock class was canceled. When waiting for the gentleman in his office to leave me and Ashleigh saw a man in short cotton shorts and a worn out t-shirt walking down our halls. Ashleigh and I did everything we could from laughing in that mans face... although we did let out a chuckle or two. Two our surprise the man we were laughing at was our guest speaker in Mr. Chambers 12 class.

Jay Fagoust is a former eagle, Fagoust graduated from NCCU in 90's and was telling us about his journey down the road of success. He's a man of many talents, he use to be a boxer but got into journalism. He worked in the Campus Echo helping it develop a format and a standard. He talked about his opportunity to work either at a large newspaper or a smaller newspaper and how the best decision he could have made was to work for the smaller paper. Now he works for USA Today as a sports editor he is able to travel and really use his job to his advantage. I was telling us to know our particular interest like the back of our hand, and that it was also important to be good at more than one thing. Especially since our economy isnt the greatest, he said give them a reason to keep you around. Like every guest speaker he stressed the importance of internships. One thing that was different about Mr. Fagoust was that he offer to read our works and send back constructive criticism. I haven't heard any of our guest speakers said that which really means a lot. But we see how quickly he responds when i send him one... I kind of learned that patience is the key and not to just jump for the lime light or the newspaper with the highest circulation. I learned that you really need to take the small opportunities if they are presented for thats when you might learn the most.
Who knew that the man walking around in work out clothes would be a journalist for USA TODAY.... Success can be disguised....

Spec-tac-u-lar!

Phyllis Cooley is a very busy woman she is not only the editor but the publisher of Spectacular Magazine for Durham NC. The magazine is designed for the community, and some stories are written by everyday people like myself. Ms. Cooley is all about business and she made that very clear when she came into talk to our class. She talked about how important deadlines are, and how everything works around a certain schedule. I never really thought how backed up something could get if she held off five minutes just so one person could try and publish a story. She made it CLEAR that she WOULD NOT mess up her deadline because someone else was unable to meet theres. Remember how I said Ms. Phyllis Cooley is a very busy woman she in not only the event planner for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. day parade and Juneteenth Chairman, but she has just started a radio program that you can listen to on the internet, she plans to have Bev Pardue on her show this week. Ms. Cooley is living out her dream and passion and although she stresses that her job isnt easy and its alot of work. Her goal is to reach and give hope and empower her community, shes all about awareness.

Biography

I thought writing my biography was going to be much easier than my obituary.....but that was not the case. I had to go back and remember the things I was proud of, or things I was praised for. And do it within the paper requirements. It wasn't until I turned it in and was going to read it to the class, is when i remembered i forgot to add lots of things, or maybe i should not have talked about myself in the third person verses writing it from my perspective. I never really thought that I would write a biography about myself nor did i really think one was going to be written. I use to think that people who were famous or who have done bug well known things get them. But after writing mine I realized that my life struggles and accomplishments are just as important as the next persons.

When first given the assignment to write my own obituary, i was very unhappy about it. I felt that if i don't even like talking about death, and i don't handle it well when love ones die, why would i want to write my own? I waited til the day before it was due to write it, and luckily a classmate of mine, help me write about my obituary in a away that didn't both me. We were told to attach two obituaries that we used to our own. I used a family friends obituary, she had died over the weekend and her funeral was that Monday. So it really sucked to write my own because i don't handle death well, and there i was reading a long time family friends obituary to help write mine. I was angry to do the assignment. I got over it and wrote it. I don't fear death, i fear how i will die, that is why i didn't write a cause of death, because I'd rather die painless in my sleep of old age, with my husband, like The Notebook!

Ronnie Camille

On Monday, we had a visit from our every own NCCU Eagle Ronnie Camille, to talk to us about life after graduation. He told us about his involvement with organizations on campus, how he jumped on every opportunity possible in order for him to get where he is today. He told us that it isn't easy and that the job market right now is frozen, that people aren't really getting hired. He talked about how the Duke Lacrosse Case really helped him next work, but he provided coverage.He talked about how pulling cord really helped him network, and that really helped him meet people. Because they always need help pulling cord. Ronnie now works in the Medical and Health unit of ABC as a free lancer. Him coming to talk to us made me see that real students can get real jobs.

Today: 66* Slightly Cloudy Low chance of rain.

On Wednesday, we had a guest visit from NBC17's Chief Meteorologist Wes Hohenstein. I really enjoyed his visit and I could tell my classmates did too. We actually interacted with him, we asked questions about everything but interestingly enough all we wanted to know about what the day in the life of the weather guy :D. Like Mr. Chambers, Wes started his freshman year of college majoring in Pre-med and quickly realized that was not the path he wanted to take. He really spoke volumes to us when he told us that he sent tapes all over the world of him doing the weather in order to get a job. Like our other guest's he stressed the importance of INTERNSHIPS! Because of the internships and his hard work, listens heard his weather report on 17 different radio stations, but this was before he moved to North Carolina. Wes did not just talk about his path into television, but he also wanted to inform us about the DTV Transition. The Government ended up pushing back the date to June 12, 2009 because millions of people we not ready for the switch. Wes said that North Carolina alone had 400,000 people who were not ready, and would have woken up to snow on their televisions. I personally I do not think that I would want to be a meteorologist, but its nice to know all the glam we see on television is not the real deal, Wes has to create his own dialogue, he own weather charts, all his research is done by him, not to mention. Update the web page every few hours, and attempt to post 3 blogs a week. Not to mention the fact his sleeping pattern sucks, he gets up way too early for me.