Bison,
It has been the honor of my academic career to work at The Hilltop.
As I type this out, writers, editors and photographers are scrambling to put final touches on the commencement print edition before we send it to the printers in just a few hours. I have given myself one hour to write this letter before returning to the dizzying responsibilities of my role, but I will try my best to encapsulate what this organization has meant to me for the past four years in the short time that I have. Foolishly, perhaps, I will start with an anecdote.
It was around 2:00 a.m. on a Tuesday last July when I left the Goldman Sachs office and made my way back to my New York City apartment. That week marked the halfway point of my internship, and I was fairly exhausted when I got home. But there was still more work to be done early that morning. The Hilltop was ramping up for the fall semester, and as the newly elected editor-in-chief (EIC), I still had scores of staff applications to read, a Hilltop budget to construct, and a freshman print edition to prepare for with my managing editor (ME) Juan Benn Jr. That was the work that started when the rest of the Western world was seemingly shut down.
After serving four years at The Hilltop as metro editor, campus editor, columns editor and now EIC, I can confidently say that I have never before put this much time and energy into something, while at the same time feeling like it has all been so effortless. I have reached a point where working at The Hilltop is like walking, or breathing. It is just something I do. And I do it with extraordinary ease. But this is only because of the people, opportunities and experiences that I was lucky enough to be affected by.
The 2021 EIC Ashleigh Fields hired me for the Metro editor position even though I had little-to-no journalism experience and was (and still am) a history major. She assigned me my first interview with then-President Wayne A.I. Frederick in his office, where he and I discussed his sickle-cell disease and his stewardship of the university. But in the weeks that followed, the Blackburn Takeover protest took up all of Howard’s attention, and former EIC Jasper Smith and former ME N’Dia Webb and I reported on everything. Those weeks laid the groundwork for our unbreakable friendship to the point where I now refer to them as my Howard sisters. I wrapped up the year with my teammates from the school of business, as we won $1 million in a national financial analysis case study competition. At the time I thought I had gotten everything I could out of Howard.
My sophomore year, I reported on amazing and impactful stories as campus editor. I wrote an enlightening piece about a bright young man named Cameron Patterson and others like him who were navigating campus life as students with disabilities. I broke a story about a robbery in Howard Plaza Towers East that led to several campus security developments in the following days, and funnily enough that night outside the dorms, I formed new friendships with three of the most upstanding individuals I have met: Léo Murderwha, Calvin Bright and Jamar Bailey.
My junior year was The Hilltop’s centennial year. By this point, I knew how to run a section and break stories. We were killing it. Though there are too many writers to name that I worked with, I hope you all know that I am tremendously grateful to have reported and stayed up late nights with you. I will never forget the times we shared together. That year I also experienced personal breakthroughs. I was awarded the Percy Newbie Award for outstanding journalism and dedication to The Hilltop, and the White House Correspondents’ Association scholarship – two awards that showed me the promise of work ethic, and conveyed to me that I can, in fact, be recognized by the world.
This year was perhaps the most impactful. By this point I had known some of my best friends in Caleb Brantley, Myles Block (both since freshman year), Tiffani Baker, Courtney Mahugu, Kamryn Brown, Isaiah Etienne and Kaleya Ervin; and I had already been locked in with Dexter Donald, Jayden Cartwright, Josiah King and Tyler Henry (also all since freshman year). I had finished an amazing summer spending weekends with Zoe Shelton, Brandon Peterson and Brianna Bryson in New York.
But I had to lead The Hilltop through presidential election coverage, in which a Howard alumna was running for the office. Election Day is what I remember most. We were hunkered down in The Oliver building near The Yard and that week we cranked out 25 stories and an amazing print edition. It was truly the experience of a lifetime, and watching then-Vice President Harris speak to the crowd on The Yard of Howard University was an inspiring experience like no other. The following semester, current ME and incoming EIC Sydney Goitia-Doran (who is texting me right now about my thoughts on a print headline), and I worked through the semester and continued to work with all Hilltop journalists to produce great work.
Editors – thank you for working with me this past year. You are all brilliant journalists, and I know I can sometimes be tough on you, but I would not prefer any other editorial board to this one. You all make me so, so proud.
Mr. Alexander – thank you. Our editorial advisor has been like a mentor outside of family that I never imagined I would be blessed enough to have. I have seen few people with the level of integrity and discernment that Mr. A has, and I owe a great deal of my personal growth to just being around him. He is the best editorial advisor The Hilltop could have ever asked for. He is a critical reason why I have been able to have the confidence to do so much in the journalism space, including competing for and winning the National Association of Black Journalists Student Journalist of the Year Award.
My family has been so incredibly supportive throughout my time at The Hilltop and at Howard. My Mom – helping me figure out (and stay on top of) class registrations and hopping on the phone with me when I just need to talk; my Dad – keeping me on track with my studies and career aspirations and always initiating the family FaceTimes for weekly check-ins; my sister Taylor – for being an amazing older sibling to look up to and follow after; and my other sister Chandler – for being an amazing role model and being so incredibly uplifting. Thank you all.
To the Bison of any class who has yet to graduate, I hope you all find something that feels as natural to you as The Hilltop has felt to me. It is a truly freeing experience, and you will be sure to meet so many who uplift and support you along the way. Thank you, Howard for everything. You have not seen the last of me.
With appreciation,
Jacky Dennis Jean-Jacques
