51ÁÔÆæ proves \u2018the best decision I ever made\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nStone\u2019s path to her career wasn\u2019t a straight line from high school to college. She was accepted at Tennessee State University, a historically Black university.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school was cool. I loved being around all the Black people. It was awesome.\u201d She really wanted to leave Milwaukee and Wisconsin, but then she got the tuition bill in the mail. \u201cI decided there is literally no way I\u2019m going to be able to afford this.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019d been accepted to 51ÁÔÆæ, \u201cwhich actually ended up being the best decision I ever made,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In addition to building great relationships in the city, the 51ÁÔÆæ journalism program gave her the knowledge and the confidence she needed to create her own business, she said.<\/p>\n
Stone particularly remembers immersive experiences that helped her master the craft of journalism in real world situations. For example, she traveled with her class to western Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota following the 2016 election to talk to voters about why that area swung from blue to red. \u201cWe went to Flint to ask about their water and to Texas after Hurricane Harvey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giving back<\/strong><\/p>\nFour years ago, she decided to give back, setting up a scholarship program for young creatives to help alleviate some of the financial struggles that she herself went through, despite Pell grants and three internships. She was able to fund the scholarships through sponsorships, grants, and her own personal and business investments. She\u2019s kept it open to helping young people who want to create, however they decide to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cCollege isn\u2019t for everybody.\u201d Stone points out that Wisconsin is 49th in the nation in supporting start-ups, including creative people, so she hopes she can set an example for others.<\/p>\n
Stone herself is still figuring out her life and her business. At age 26, though, she doesn\u2019t feel that she has to have everything planned out yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I started in college, I\u2019ve been doing something in journalism every single day for six years. I tell people, in order to get better at something you\u2019ve got to keep doing it\u2026.be consistent and don\u2019t give up on yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Kathy Quirk, University Relations<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Nyesha Stone graduated from 51ÁÔÆæ in 2018 with her degree in journalism, advertising and media studies, she wasn\u2019t quite sure if she wanted to go into traditional newspaper journalism \u2014 and jobs were scarce anyway. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to get …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19040,"featured_media":20371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[1848,1756],"tags":[1851],"class_list":["post-20370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-student-news","category-in-focus-2023","tag-january"],"yoast_head":"\n
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