Lots of college students dream of getting that one big internship that’ll rocket start their career. Well, that’s exactly what’s happening to FAMU student and Broadcast Journalism major, Javonni Hampton. Hampton just landed an internship with CBS, an incredible opportunity, she says.
Javonni, born and raised in Orlando, Florida, says she first started making her way into the field of broadcast journalism back in high school, and says she joined ten organizations and also was the president of six of them. Her interest gained in journalism and broadcast media after she produced a 15 minute narrative feature about the portrayal of African American women in the media.
“Being involved in those different organizations and clubs, it allows you to be able to be a leader as well as a follower, be able to speak your mind and let your opinions to be known, and that kind of paved the way for me to be comfortable in broadcast journalism,” explain Javonni.
“The more women there would be in media, it would promote female evolution just like at one point, when women didn’t have the right to vote and now you’re seeing more women in TV shows and becoming journalists. It’s like the more women that [join the media], it’s kind of impossible to tell every woman “no”,” says Javonni.
In college, Javonni became an anchor for FAMU’s “News 20 & Five” while being a contributing Multimedia Journalist.
“I’ve kind of been shadowing the new cast and wanting to be able to sit at the anchor desk and I had the opportunity to audience and I took full advantage of it.”
Since FAMU is a partner with CBS, finding out about the internship wasn’t hard, it was making sure that she had everything she needed to be qualified, which made it a bit difficult Javonni explains.
“I had to do a resume, get letters of recommendation, had to write an essay, make sure my GPA met the requirements, a lot of stuff. I don’t know how long I waited to hear back from them (CBS), but I did and I got it.”
Javonni has big plans on leaving her mark on the world of news especially amongst African Americans and other minority groups.
“A lot people aren’t informed about the world around them. Media is centered around the music industry and gossip and if it’s not on social media, then people really don’t know what’s going on,” explains Javonni.
“Even if I don’t become a news anchor in the future still being an inspirational speaker or have my own talk show, or anything that I’ll be able to use my voice to help people I’d be more than happy with.”
She will start her internship this summer, and plans to make the most of this experience, Hampton says.
