She Could, So We Can Too! Janene Tate Encourages Student Journalists

They Could, So We Can Too! It is a series highlighting various alumni on campus. Our first highlight is Janene Tate, Director of Communications, for the Department of Office Communications for Southern University and A&M College.
“I was a part of Student Media from my sophomore year all the way through graduate school. I was the editor-in-chief of the digest.” Janene Tate was a former editor-in-chief of the Southern Digest and a former editor-in-chief of the Jaguar yearbook. She majored in mass communication and her concentration for her bachelor’s degree was print journalism. Her master’s degree was in public relations.
She gave words of encouragement to students. “I will say my keyword for every day is balance. Making sure that you are cherishing life you know life mental health just balancing your personal life and career or education as much as possible, giving self-care priority in everything that you do.”
She also encouraged students to continue learning. “Always keep learning. You can think you know everything there is to know about something but there’s always more to learn and I think that’s the beauty of life.” Tate discussed how Student Media played a major part in helping with her career. “Southern opened a lot of doors for me,” she continued. “Southern prepared me for all those roles I’ve had over my more than 16-year career.”
During her career, she traveled a lot to different places around the world to work. After receiving her master’s degree she went to Columbus, Georgia to work on newspapers. She was a copy editor and page designer for the metro section. After two years she traveled to Tuskegee University to become a communication specialist. Five years later she was recruited to go to the University of New Orleans as the Assistant Vice President for Communications, Public relations, and Marketing. Tate did that for four years. Then the communications director position for Mayor-President Sharon Weston Brown is what brought her back to Baton Rouge.
She did that for her first year and then the position that she’s in now became available. “I’m currently at Southern and again, this is my dream job, I would say to come back to the place that helped me and groomed me so much so I’ve been here for five years now.”
As a Southern alumni Tate says that she’s proud of Southern University’s legacy and what they’ve become. “As someone who has went through Southern, not one but two times and also someone who is tasked with promoting the university’s students, programs, et cetera. I am very proud of our legacy high heat has grown and been sustained over more than 140 years.”
Tate also has some advice for photographers and writers who want to start businesses. “ I would say keep your eye out and keep your mind open to what is photo-worthy, for lack of a better word, everything that’s going on campus around campus. Don’t just keep it centered on campus, you know, because the things in the community in the state can be localized and save our students.”
Tate encouraged student journalists to take their roles seriously. “Make sure that you’re capturing people in their environments, their essence, and their challenges. Everything is not always going to be a pretty picture. People are very open to sharing those stories, not just in writing but in their visuals. Photography is extremely important in journalism and marketing and everything. I can’t do a thing without art, you know? So take your role very seriously. But at the same time, make sure you’re capturing the good times and bad times, and all of that you are a recorder and you have a great responsibility. Have fun with it at the same time.”