Don't Limit Yourself to What Hampton Has to Offer

Erin Hill

Every wall in a house serves a purpose: to help hold it up. But three walls in the office at my house do much more.

My mother's wall holds both her degrees from the Detroit College of Business. My sister's holds her degree from Wayne State University. But since my sister got her master's after she moved out of the house, my mother doesn't want to call claim to it.

And on my wall: an award for being in the top 3 percent of graduating high school seniors in Detroit, my high school diploma from Cass Tech, and a picture from my eighth-grade class trip to Washington, D.C.

But because I'm a print journalism major at Hampton University, a school that tries to use its newspaper as a public relations vehicle, I wondered whether my mother would proudly call claim to my degree as she did for my sister Tamika.

"It has a [stigma] to it, but I don't think it's going to affect the value of your degree, Erin," she said. "But I paid for it. I want it. I know you worked hard for it, so I'll let you look at it -- every time you come to visit. I'll even give you a copy to put on your office wall," she said.

The truck that hauled off the 6,500 issues of the Hampton Script's original Homecoming edition did not take my skills with it. I can still spot Associated Press style, grammar and spelling errors. I can still get the facts straight. I can still write a good lede. I can still keep my readers' attention. Right?

Being a part of the Hampton Script staff is extracurricular -- but it's my passion. The passion in me wants to do good journalism and do it effectively. The passion in me wants to help train the writers to run the Script when I'm gone. But if the administration pulls another stunt like it did with the Homecoming issue or with this so-called task force, the passion in me will have to walk away from the Script.

The Script is not the only newspaper in the Hampton Roads area. There are larger venues in which we can display our journalistic talents, such as the Virginian-Pilot and the Daily Press, and that's exactly what I'm doing.

I'm a part-time copy editor at the Daily Press. Some students are dumbfounded when they find out that tidbit. "How did you get that job?" they ask.

Well, I just asked. I hounded the presentation editor for an interview, took the editing test, passed it and she offered me a job. I didn't have "the hook-up." All it took was a little initiative and skill. Now I have a sense of independence because I can pay my bills with little assistance from my mother.

Real-life experience is the best teacher, so don't limit yourself to what Hampton has to offer because it doesn't always offer the best options. Step outside. There are bigger and better opportunities.

If you think past the iron gates, it's a guarantee that on Mothers Day of the year you graduate, you will have honestly earned that sheet of paper that cost nearly $80,000 . You will be well-deserving of it - and no one can devalue that.

Erin Hill is a student at Hampton University and copy editor of the Hampton Script.

Posted Nov. 4, 2003