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It's Not Too Late for Me to Get It Right

By Frenchi Johnson-Jones
Black College Wire

Frenchi Johnson-Jones

When I first arrived at the HBCU Newspaper Conference and Job Fair in Greensboro, N.C., I was elated to be in the presence of dedicated brothers and sisters with the same mission.

I enjoyed going into the beautiful classrooms at North Carolina A&T State University, to workshops where most of the students and media professionals had the same brown pigment that I did.

Every workshop gave me insight and every professional seemed to give me hope -- hope that there was a place in the industry for someone like me, whose ancestors were cheated of the education and networking opportunities required to be competitive.

However, as I was waiting to leave the hotel, my perception changed and my vision of hope was blinded.

I sat down with an adviser who had been present for the entire Feb. 8-11 conference and started to discuss the editors’ roundtable held the day before.

After telling the adviser how we students had discussed the joys and hardships of being editors of our campus newspapers, she told me how she and some of the other advisers had met to discuss some of the same issues.

Although I was glad the advisers were discussing these concerns, I was saddened by some of the ideas she said had been presented. They were quite different from the ones we students had come up with.

The adviser said many student journalists do not know the fundamentals of writing by graduation. She said one idea advanced was that it was too late for students who had not grasped the essentials by the time they made it to college. In other words, if a student had trouble with simple sentence structure, grammar, punctuation and Associated Press style, it was too late for him or her to be able to conquer the craft of journalism.

I was appalled by this suggestion and taken aback by the idea that those who were projecting so much hope into our minds could also be casting so much doubt.

A nontraditional student, I came to college at a disadvantage. Not only had I had two kids, but I had attended a high school where the teachers were worried only about getting students out the door. I was one of those students it was "too late for."

When I became involved in my concentration, I struggled. As a matter of fact, at one time it was pointed out to me that I did not know the difference between "their" and "there."

Despite that, it was not too late for me.

Thank God for two of my advisers who believed I was capable. One took the time to show me the proper way and the other gave me the constructive criticism I needed to keep motivated. They never gave up on me, and in return, I never gave up on myself. I was always motivated and encouraged.

Now I am proud when I tell people that I am the executive editor. I beat the odds. If I had listened to the negative criticism, I might not be who I am today: a concerned, caring, compassionate, patient, understanding and educated editor.

Frenchi Johnson-Jones, a student at Savannah State University, is editor of the Tiger's Roar.

Articles in the Voices section are the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of Black College Wire.

Posted Feb. 19, 2006