On February 12th from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm, Alcorn State University’s National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Chapter, hosted a Lunch and Learn Seminar in the Industrial Technology Building in Room 214.
Featured speaker, Dreka Shevon, writer, director, and producer from Port Gibson, Mississippi, spoke to students about her journey and experiences in the media industry. Shevon is experienced in creating content, making movies, and producing commercials. She began her presentation by talking to the students about the power of the media. She talked about how domineering and influential the mass media is and can be.
During the next phase of her presentation she spoke to students about how to make an impact. She went in-depth about how to entertain, how to empower, how to encourage, how to enlighten, and how to educate. After discussing how to make an impact, she spoke to the students about starting their journey. Shevon stressed to them how important having content is, no matter how little or how much one has, it is vitally key. She also put an emphasis on how vital it is to have “thick skin” within the media industry. She spoke from her personal experience of how she had to work for free to get to the point where she was working to get paid. She stressed to the students by stating, “Sometimes you have to do what you have to do, to do what you want to do.”
Following this point, she touched on how using one’s gifts are important. She mentioned how she got involved in everything from producing, anchoring, and writing, to find out what she loved. The final stage of her presentation discussed how to plan for success. Her four most important tips that she wanted students to ingrain in their minds were that they must prepare and set goals, commit, endure, and never give up. Larry Sanders, Instructor of Mass Communications, stated, “It was indeed an honor and a privilege to have Ms. Shevon here today. I think that it is very important for our students to see individuals who are working in the field of mass media and who are successful in it as well.”
The event ended with a question and answer segment which allowed students to get information that was not mentioned in the presentation. Mass Communications student, Jazmin Green, a Junior from Vicksburg, Mississippi stated, “Ms. Shevon, as our guest speaker, was extremely insightful. The most influential part of her speech for me was her tips on goal setting. I learned that if you have a goal but have no plan to get there, then you’re just basically dreaming.”