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.

CapStrat

I truly enjoyed our visit from our CapStrat visitors. Tiffany Lawerance and Louise Beasley Warenda, brought to my attention how many different job's there are, just stuff I never knew about they opened up my eyes even wider then were and told me about all the different positions that CapStrat has. Louise even told me to email her so I can come in a shadow her or some interns, and see all the positions at CapStrat. :D I was really interested in the fact that Tiffany and Louise both did not major in communications and how they grew to love it and how they are continuing to learn everyday. They seem like really energetic, fun spirited, and work oriented people which is the type of enviroment I was to be in. People like myself. I can't wait for Mr. Chamber's next guest speaker(s).

Erica McRae

Erica McRae came and talked to our Mass Media and Society class on Friday. I feel like her words really reached everyone, I know they reached me. I was in a class last semester with Erica and we got pretty close, and I can honestly say its really inspiring to see someone start at the bottom and actually making the journey towards the finish line of success. She has gotten internship and built relationships with people, proving to herself and others that she really loves this industry and really has a passion and will do it no matter what. I just wonder how i will be able to do the same. I work all the time, and I am not sure how i would be able to "go hard" as she put it. She said that we can learn a lot from Mr. Chambers, and feel that if he could help her and motivate her to go out there and create opportunities and have her talk so highly of him. Then he must really care about us and individuals and want to see us succeed. Erica coming to talk to the class was really enlightening and motivating.

Nothing will be handed to you.....

The panelist at the Mass Communication Forum yesterday, the discussion really expressed one thing, internships and creating your own opportunities. Internships are the key. And to remember that nothing will be handed to you, these are key things to remember in order to get your foot in the door, to get a feel for what you want to do, shadowing and internships are important. Not many internships are paid, so they stressed taking whatever you can get paid or not. One of the most important things i learned was that nothing will be handed to me and there are many people with experience competing for the same jobs. So that I have to work twice as hard in order to accomplish my goals.

Marching to the FREEDOM land....

Today, as I watched several news station cover the inauguration I found myself watching WGN because of the commentary, the other stations did a great job even BET i was so excited that they had Hill Harper up there with his fine self. But WGN had me laughing and kept me informed. When the Bush family walked down the red carpeted stairs a weight was lifted of my shoulders and a sigh of relief flowed out of my mouth. We made it through his presidency. Obama's inauguration was shown on MTV, BET, CNN, C-Span, C-Span 2, Univision, ABC, CBS, WGN, FOX, and many more. Although I don’t believe his presidency was not the best and nor was his decisions, running a country has to be hard and you can’t please very one. I am now regretting not going to D.C. but I'll be there for his second term. At the end of the day something historical has happen, its more than historical, is a stepping stone,it shows progress, and delivers hope to those who dream big, but doesn't believe their dreams will come true, it’s so much more, that I can’t even put into words. My grandmother was born in 1920 and here in her life time 2009 we have an African American President, a president that is truly of the people, he can connect to everyone.
BET has truly did a great job, there really did their research, made great comparisons. Hill Harper is AWESOME he has known Obama for 20 yrs they met in law school and he was covering the inauguration for BET. Unlike election night they were pretty current. I really enjoyed WGN coverage and their commentary, C-Span just played music and images but no coverage.
We weren’t just celebrating a black president we were celebrating a birth of freedom, a new change, You could hear the crowd chanting Obama..The girls look beautiful, and Michelle finally got the dress right, she finally looked amazing, and didn’t look like a casual mom, she dressed the part. As Obama walked to his seat I was wondering what was going through his mind and how is he able to stay so calm. This one man standing for change and representing a million plus voices. I couldn't stop the tears, and like always his speeches are breath taking.

I didn't like Mrs. Franklins hat...and she mumbled over some words while singing. and the poet her poem was way to much, to complex for the event and made me lose interest, it didn't keep the fire burning inside.

Congratulations to our 44Th President of the United States of America Barack H. Obama

Kent State Massacre

All this talk about the Montgomery Boycott, Dr. King, and Obama....made me call my mom and have her tell me some her experiences growing up. I always remember her talking about the tear gas at Kent State in Ohio, which is known as the Kent State Massacre or the May 4th Massacre. But I never really asked mom to go into detail about it until today.
Before I get into the details let me give you some background information from Wikipedia..i shortened some of it:
Thursday, April 30-President Richard Nixon announced to the nation that an incursion into Cambodia had been launched by United States combat forces.
Friday, May 1 At Kent State University, a demonstration with about 500 students[8] was held on May 1 on the Commons. As the crowd dispersed to attend classes by 1 p.m. another rally was planned for May 4 to continue the protest of Nixon's expansion of the Vietnam war into Cambodia. There was widespread anger, and many protesters issued a call to "bring the war home." As a symbolic protest to Nixon's decision to send troops, a group of students watched a graduate student burying a copy of the U.S. Constitution while another student burned his draft card.Around midnight when people left a bar and began throwing beer bottles at cars and breaking downtown store fronts. In the process they broke a bank window which set off an alarm.By the time police arrived, a crowd of about 100 had already gathered. Some people from the crowd had already lit a small bonfire in the street. The crowd appeared to be a mix of bikers, students, and out-of town youths who regularly came to Kent's bars. A few members of the crowd began to throw beer bottles at the police, and then started yelling obscenities at them. The disturbance lasted for about an hour before the police restored order.
Saturday, May 2Kent's Mayor Leroy Satrom declared a state of emergency on May 2 and, later that afternoon, asked Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes to send the National Guard to Kent to help maintain order. When the National Guard arrived in town that evening (at around 10 P.M.), a large demonstration was already under way on the campus, and the campus Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) building was burning. The arsonists were never apprehended and no one was injured in the fire. More than a thousand protesters surrounded the building and cheered the building's burning. While attempting to extinguish the fire, several Kent firemen and police officers were hit with rocks and other objects by those standing near the fire. More than one fire engine company had to be called in because protesters carried the fire hose into the Commons and slashed it. The National Guard made many arrests, tear gas was used, and at least one student was wounded with a bayonet
Sunday, May 3 By Sunday, May 3, there were nearly 1,000 National Guardsmen on campus to control the students. During a press conference, Governor Rhodes called the protesters un-American and referred to the protesters as revolutionaries set on destroying higher education in Ohio. Rhodes also claimed he would obtain a court order declaring a state of emergency, banning further demonstrations, and gave the impression that a situation akin to martial law had been declared; however he never attempted to obtain such an order. Around 8:00 p.m., another rally was held on the campus Commons. By 8:45 p.m. the Guard used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and the students reassembled at the intersection of Lincoln and Main Streets, holding a sit-in in the hopes of gaining a meeting with Mayor Satrom and President White. At 11:00 p.m., the Guard announced that a curfew had gone into effect and began forcing the students back to their dorms. Ten Guardsmen were injured and a few students were bayoneted by Guardsmen.
Monday, May 4 a protest was scheduled to be held at noon, as had been planned three days earlier. University officials attempted to ban the gathering, handing out 12,000 leaflets stating that the event was canceled. Despite this, an estimated 2,000 people gathered on the university's Commons, near Taylor Hall. The protest began with the ringing of the campus's iron Victory Bell to mark the beginning of the rally, and the first protester began to speak.
Fearing that the situation might escalate into another violent protest, Companies A and C, 1/145th Infantry and Troop G of the 2/107th Armored Cavalry, Ohio ARNG, the units on the campus grounds, attempted to disperse the students. The legality of the dispersal was later debated at a subsequent wrongful death and injury trial. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that authorities did indeed have the right to disperse the crowd.
Just before noon, the Guard returned and again ordered the crowd to disperse. When most of the crowd refused, the Guard used tear gas. Because of wind, the tear gas had little effect in dispersing the crowd, and some began a second rock attack with chants of "Pigs off campus!" The students lobbed the tear gas canisters back at the National Guardsmen; however, they had put on gas masks upon first throwing tear gas at the students.
At this point, at 12:22 PM,[1] a number of guardsmen at the top of the hill abruptly turned and fired their M1 Garand rifles at the students. The guardsmen directed their fire not at the closest students, who were on the Taylor Hall veranda, but at those on the grass area and concrete walkway below the veranda, at those on the service road between the veranda and the parking lot, and at those in the parking lot. Bullets were not sprayed in all directions; instead, they were confined to a fairly limited line of fire leading from the top of the hill to the parking lot. Not all the soldiers who fired their weapons directed their fire into the students
The shootings killed four students and wounded nine. Two of the four students killed, Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller, had participated in the protest, and the other two, Sandra Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder, had been walking from one class to the next at the time of their deaths. Schroeder was also a member of the campus ROTC chapter. Of those wounded, none was closer than 71 feet to the guardsmen. Of those killed, the nearest (Miller) was 265 feet away, and their average distance from the guardsmen was 345ft.

Can you image a group of people seriously stand up for what they believed in no matter what the consequences are. It really makes my question myself and my generation and ask....is the reason we dont protest and fight for what we want, because we have no will power, no determination, no structure, self will, or are we scared of the consequences?

I think that things were a lot different then, and had no choice but to recognize peoples protest and change the problem, or atleast come up with a solution. I think many people including myself feels that we would get the same responses if we protested like they did in the 60's.
I am glad to say i feel we(all people) came together to make Obama our President elect/President.
It just blew my mind and thought it would be fun to share!

Martin L. King Jr. The Price of Freedom

WTVD News Channel 11 did a special on M.L.K. Jr called The Price of Freedom. Although we didn't get to watch the video in its entirety. I learned we used the Montgomery Boycott strategy was used all over here in Durham down the street in Greensboro. It was a time when people felt they were be treated unfairly and actually did something about it. FYI(Really cool website that as some articles from the Montgomery Newspaper from when the boycott was going on http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/index_article.htm). Think about this Dr. King was assainated in 1968 that was only 41 years ago. Can you imagin he was trying to reach the goals of equal education, economical, and political opportunites, and 41 years later we are still fighting for the same thing. But when I think about it, compared to what they were doing in 50's and 60's is nothing to what we do now. It's almost as if we are sitting around waiting for change it happen on its own. Its funny, at one time we were so unified we were so together and bonded and now we have black on black crime. WTVD provided viewers with statistics by the Census Bureau for Unemployed blacks 1963 10.8% 1993 13.8% Only thing that has changed is the number of blacks still unemployed. Mind blowing huh. The program was a round table discussion with four panelist Ben Ruffin, Maceo k. Sloan, Melaine Wilson, and Warren Harrington J.r.
They said we lost pride and determination, why? some people feel we made it--we are not longer pulling together anymore. Panelist Ben Ruffin said "We dont know where we want to go." Our culture doesn't teach us where we want to go. I am sure that many people agreed with him. Petitioning is apart of our First Admendment right and some over the years we stopped making our voices heard. We have individuals that speak up, but as history has shown your get results when you mess with peoples money and you speak in volume.

Bryson Pitts--OBAMA doesnt mean strickly Opportunites 4 Blacks

The Bryson Pitts speech at the TABS Banquet was very interesting, although he made some really good points he also created this church atmosphere, which can sometimes make people tune you out. I believe there is a difference between trying to deliver a message to someone and trying to force someone to receive the message, like when people are just trying to force their ideals on your without trying to see/hear where you are coming from or how you view it.
I know like Bryson and myself many people are wondering what happens after Obama wins. The one thing that I hated most during the election was people saying "I'm going to vote for Obama because he's black...and when we have a black man in office things are gonna change..."we" gonna be able to do this.....and "we" gonna be able to that..and cant nobody tell us nothing because our president is black."
Bryson made many valid points for example: He said "journalist of color should not rely on Obama to open opportunities for black journalist...make your own." This is funny because I look at my Aunt who is a very successful attorney in NY she was listed in Ebony's 100 successful African American woman. Nothing was handed to her like Bryson said "Plan your work and work your plan" she came up with a plan and followed it, no matter how hard it was.....and if an obstacle presented itself she learned to get around it and nothing stopped her from achieving her goals. She didn't think because will my cousin is an attorney he can just help me and give me a job....No she worked hard and earned everything she achieved.
Bryson said "We can't think that because ONE makes it WE all make it" this is SO true. I say that all the time. If we don't see an opportunity we should create it ourselves. When my mom and dad wouldn't give me extra allowance money in middle school my best friend Laura and I decided we were going to make our own money. So Laura, myself, and another neighborhood kid decided we were going to make a cruz thru, we'd take food and Dr.Peppers and bananas out of our house and set up a stand while our parents were at work after school and sell them to the college students running, walking to their cars or their sorority house, because would stop get lemonade, an orange, bananas and for a while we made (What we thought was a lot of money) and would clean up before our parents got home. Eventually we got caught and in trouble for selling our food for WAY cheaper than our parents paid for it. But they were happy we figured out a way to get what we wanted. Which brings me to Bryson's principle B.E.G. Begin, Endure, and Gain. At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to do was major I wanted and I found something I want to do so I am beginning somewhere and as of now I am enduring this book prices so I can gain success in the future.
A lot of things Bryson said in the video has really stuck with him. I know the road ahead isn't going to be easy i know that "Everyone your color, ain't your kind", and that I have to create opportunities and it isn't doing to be easy. I know that I "Cant just be GOOD, I have to be twice as good" and it really gave me a little more insight on how much harder I am and need to work. No one handed Obama the title and position President of the United States of America on a silver platter, he work for where he is today, and I will have to work for where I want to be tomorrow.

Why I am taking Mass Media and Society...

Wednesday January 7, 2009 was the first official day of classes of NCCU students. I had registered for Mr. Chambers Mass Media and Society class, and he asked us why are we taking this class, first thing that came to my mine was I'm a Mass Communications major its a requirement to take this class. He said we had a choice to and really think why we are here. When i really started to think about it, its a good way to learn things i have no idea about, really learn about the industry, learn from someone (meaning my instructor/or others) who have actually been in the field and worked in the industry, to network, and to pass so i can graduate in 2010 :)