It’s time for a wake up call!

We as young black Americans hate to be labeled as lazy or trifling. We can’t stand it when someone accuses us of possessing lackluster attitudes when it comes to our futures. We seem to think that everything should be handed to us on a silver platter because we are black and it’s owed to us. We want the “American dream,” but we don’t want to work for it. Rather, we don’t want to work HARD for it. We’d rather have it given to us “just because.”
Well, wake up people; you’re not in Kansas anymore!
Not all of us, but some of us are lazy and trifling; particularly those Southern University students who always look for the easy way out of studying for a test or doing research for a paper. Or those of us who take weighted breaths when our professors finally show up for classes WE signed up for, paid money to attend, but secretly hope those same professors will cancel class so we won’t miss the latest union happenings on “pretty Wednesday.”
My frustrations with students’ lackadaisical attitudes, regarding their futures after college, hits an irritating high when I witness, day-after-day, the nonchalant attitudes of my peers in the Department of Mass Communication. Daily I witness students who do just enough to “get by,” but then want to stand up on the first day of class and boast about how he or she will be the next Oprah or Montell.
I can not tell you how many times I’ve heard print journalism students say they want to be reporters after college, but these same students fail to produce a “clip book” to collaborate their dream. What’s even sadder is that more than half of them don’t even know what a “clip book” is.
If I had a dime for every time a mass comm student walked into The DIGEST wanting to be a reporter, then backing out once they realize the hard work that comes with the job, I’d be freaking Donald Trump!
There are many people that can be blamed for the students of mass communication shortcomings as future journalist, but let’s start the blaming with self first.
Students, when you go out into the real world to get that ever so sought after job we’re all suppose to be here for, here’s a reality check for you: YOU’RE NOT GOING TO GET HIRED WITHOUT CLIPS!!!
What are clips you say?
They are samples of your writings, news writings, that you have the golden opportunity to produce because you to go a school with a newspaper that was named the best out of all other Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
We as aspiring journalists have an opportunity that very few other students in other disciplines have. We are afforded the opportunity to actually be doing what we’re studying for.
Hell yes it’s hard work, but guess what-my hard work has paid off in internship opportunities that will polish my resume off and give me a competing edge against all the white college journalist who will be one day graduating just like me. And believe me, I’ve seen the competition, and no I don’t feel they are any better than me, but I feel that way because I know what I can do, and I know this because I do it everyday when I make use of the golden opportunity that was allotted to me as a student journalist.
This isn’t meant to be a public service announcement, urging you to join our staff at The DIGEST. This editorial is meant to be a wake up call to all you lazy, trifling brothas and sisters out there who think you’ll get a job without clips, or a resume tape.
Trust me when I say this: YOU WON’T!
Let’s not give “the white man” another reason to throw your resume in the trash. Take advantage of everything college has to offer. Internships, co-ops, these things are what set you apart from everyone else. Just going to class to receive a piece of paper isn’t going to cut it. And if you think it will, or you don’t have time to work here or do that, then I say thank you for making it a whole lot easier for me to succeed.