This past Sunday, it was another humid day in Syracuse. I left my house at 2:30 in the afternoon and walked the 30 minutes to the Newhouse School of Public Communications building to meet Jasmine Haynes for our scheduled interview. She was wearing an elegant purple dress and had come straight from church services.
As I would find in speaking with Haynes, her faith plays a major role in her life. As I would find in speaking with her more, I realized that it has to.
Ever since high school, Haynes dreamed of working in sports media. While everyday news usually tells tales of sorrow, sports news usually spreads words of cheer. Haynes says she likes this.
"I enjoy the story-telling of victory," she told me.
Well if that's the case, she may want to consider writing about herself.
Haynes suffers from Crohn's, a type of inflammatory bowel disease. As a matter of fact, Haynes says Crohn's disease has had her in and out of the hospital four times this year.
The final time was for a small bowel resection surgery on June 10th, only three weeks before the beginning of her summer graduate studies at Syracuse University.
After surgery, Haynes says she completed one week of recovery time in the hospital, then one shaky week at home. Finally, she felt good enough to furiously pack the final week before classes just to get to Syracuse in time.
As of now, the surgery was a success. Haynes says she's feeling healthy and hopes that her Crohn's disease enters remission.
And while many students would complain of having to be in school during the summer months, Haynes is simply happy to be in the position she's in.
"[I want to] learn as much as I can, make the most of this year, and get out and be ready to impact the world in being a journalist."
As I would find in speaking with Haynes, her faith plays a major role in her life. As I would find in speaking with her more, I realized that it has to.
Ever since high school, Haynes dreamed of working in sports media. While everyday news usually tells tales of sorrow, sports news usually spreads words of cheer. Haynes says she likes this.
"I enjoy the story-telling of victory," she told me.
Well if that's the case, she may want to consider writing about herself.
Haynes suffers from Crohn's, a type of inflammatory bowel disease. As a matter of fact, Haynes says Crohn's disease has had her in and out of the hospital four times this year.
The final time was for a small bowel resection surgery on June 10th, only three weeks before the beginning of her summer graduate studies at Syracuse University.
After surgery, Haynes says she completed one week of recovery time in the hospital, then one shaky week at home. Finally, she felt good enough to furiously pack the final week before classes just to get to Syracuse in time.
As of now, the surgery was a success. Haynes says she's feeling healthy and hopes that her Crohn's disease enters remission.
And while many students would complain of having to be in school during the summer months, Haynes is simply happy to be in the position she's in.
"[I want to] learn as much as I can, make the most of this year, and get out and be ready to impact the world in being a journalist."
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Video
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Interview Transcript
PS- I’m here with Jasmine Haynes who is a member of the Graduate class of Newhouse this year. And I’m going to be asking her a few questions about why she wants to get into sports media, and so on and so forth. Why do you want to be involved in sports media?
JH- Well, I have enjoyed sports all my life. I have played basketball since second grade. As a matter of fact, my favorite team was the Utah Jazz, go figure, that’s my nickname at the age of 5. And also just because I enjoy the story-telling of victory, triumph that sports brings and people need it. It’s a break from the typical day, the long work day and hearing everything that you hear, the negative news stories about crashes and crime. So I think sports has an uplifting ability for people so I feel being able to be a sports story teller is impactful in that way.
PS- At the University of Texas you were heavily in sports media during your tenure. How is that experience helping you now during bootcamp?
JH- Oh it’s definitely helping me deal with all the issues. The one thing about working with student media is you don’t have a great budget and you have to work with what you have. And I think, learning how to work with the iPads and being part of a journalism program but not necessarily part of the mainstream media so getting out there, having to hustle to get interviews, and come back and package it and just enterprise stories kind of on your own, which is what we had to do working in student media. I think it all kind of prepared me for that. It gave me that thick skin needed to be a student journalist.
PS- But then after graduating UT, you had all this journalism experience but you decided to get away. Why?
JH- Well, life threw some curveballs I guess I could say. Got out of college, and my mother had a brain aneurism and had to undergo emergency brain surgery. And it was kind of a reality check for me. Because I am an only child, and I felt like if I was a journalist right now somewhere in Podunk, South Dakota, how would I ever be able to be there for my family at that time of need? And so it kind of made me question, did I really want to get into the field of journalism? Not that I didn’t still love the field. But was I really ready for the sacrifices that came with. So yea, it kind of made me question, did I really want to pursue journalism?
PS- So when you got away, what did you do instead?
JH- I ended up becoming a school teacher; long term subbing. I actually got into that because I had a family friend who worked at a school. They needed a math teacher to step in for a teacher who was on an extended maternity leave. It was actually ironic because teaching was one of the things I kind of wanted to do before I decided to be a journalist in high school. Actually, I enjoyed it. It’s still in a sense being a communicator-- you’re educating people. I enjoyed it, but my love for journalism was still kind of tugging at my heart.
PS- So what was it that made you get back on track with the journalism?
JH- Well, it was actually my church. I went up to my pastor and kind of told him that I want to help out with the media. Because I felt that having a background of broadcast journalism, kind of professional training, so to speak degree in journalism. I felt that I could be an asset to the church and bring my gifts to the table and help them with the media. And I just wanted to press a powerpoint button for praise and worship and the slides for the pastor’s sermon. But he actually said, it’s crazy, but we were actually wanting to start a video announcements ministries, but they didn’t really have anyone at the church to head it up. So I thought about it and I decided sure, why not, I definitely would like to help out. So I got started doing that and actually the photographer that would film me for the video announcements was a news photographer for channel 13, KTRK, in Houston. So it actually was a blessing in disguise. It kind of got me back into it, kind of felt like an internship almost. I got that taste again, and I felt like yeah, I can’t let this journalism go.
PS- So you got over the obstacle of not being sure you wanted to do it. So finally decided to and that’s why you are. But you also have another big part of your life and that’s Crohn’s disease. It effects your immune system. How has your last year been in dealing with that?
JH- It’s been up and down. And that’s kind of the beast of Crohn’s. It can hit you whenever it wants to. Basically with that, my medicines hadn’t been working and I was getting to the point where doctors call “steroid dependent.” Meaning if i’m not on steroids, I’m sick. And that’s kind of what happened. As I got off of steroids, I would get sick, end up in the hospital. Be in the hospital for a week, get right back out, get on steroids again, then the doctor tries to take me off, I’d get sick again and go back in the hospital. So that’s kind of what happened.
PS- So how many times have you been in the hospital this year?
JH- I went in November, which was a week after I came to Syracuse in October for their open house to visit. Then I went back in the hospital again around the 1st of March. Then I went back in the hospital again for a day, well to the ER room, in April. Actually it was April 18th, the day before I came to Syracuse for the graduate preview, which was April 19th. And then I went back in again 3 weeks before coming here for July 1st, the start of the program, because I ultimately decided okay, I think I need surgery.
PS- So you had surgery 3 weeks before you came here?
JH- I did.
PS- And how are you now? Has it worked? Are you ok?
JH- So far, so good. I was down for a week in the hospital, recovery. And then the week after I could definitely tell I had to take things slow. And then the week after that I was frantically packing, to come to Syracuse, and I’m definitely much better. I’m actually kind of upset with myself for waiting so long to do surgery just because I think going under the knife is not always an easy decision, I don’t think for anyone. So, I definitely think it was a great decision. It has allowed me to have 100 % of my health. To be able to handle the rigor that is this program. And that’s the thing I learned that I may be young, but I’m not invincible. And if you don’t have your health, then you don’t have anything. So having my health is important, in addition to, being able to have the drive and determination to make it through this program.
PS- How has your faith helped you through this process?
JH- Ohh, huge part, huge part. I think with Crohn’s disease, the funny thing is that a lot of patients do battle depression, because it’s such a up and down thing. I mean literally, one day your good, the next day you’re down. So that could definitely have a negative impact on someone’s mindset and mental stability. So for me, my faith is really, truly strong. Because I understand that everything I’m going through, there’s a reason. And I have to understand that maybe my story can inspire someone else, or just knowing that nothing’s too hard for my God, and knowing that he is sovereign at the end of the day. And also dealing with my mom’s situation, of having a brain aneurism. Her situation was emergency, I mean it was a boom, we didn’t have time to plan for it or anything. Watching her go through that, making it through that hurdle in my life, my Crohn’s is to me nothing in comparison to that. So I feel that the same God that brought me through that can bring me through my Crohn’s.
PS- So now that you’re here, feeling healthy and happy, what’s your picture for the future?
JH- Well, picture for the future, to hopefully stay healthy, and hopefully Crohn’s stays in remission for some years, which is one of the potential outcomes of surgery. But also to pull through grad school, learn as much as I can, just be a total sponge, make the most of this year, and get out and be ready to impact world in being a journalist.
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