Page 31 - Laker Connection Fall 2015

Alumni Profile
“you need To find ouT whaT you
wanT To do and, if ThaT’s your passion, ThaT’s your calling.
Jazzy mcbee
Communications & Media Studies Alumna
According to one of the most popular names in the urban radio market in Atlanta, it’s all about pas- sion.
“You need to find out what you want to do and, if that’s your passion, that’s your calling,” says “Jazzy McBee,” who hosts a daily show from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Streetz 94.5 FM.
Although she graduated from Clayton State in 2009 under another name, Jazzy McBee is her on- air persona, and radio is her passion; a passion she discovered while she was originally a Liberal Studies major at Clayton State who was at the same time interning in radio. And, even though she started in the field, “cold, I had no knowledge of radio,” she soon found the depths of her passion in the Communications and Media Studies (CMS) program at Clayton State.
“I changed my major to enhance what I had at the station,” says McBee, explaining her decision to double major in both Liberal Studies and Commu- nication and Media Studies. “My professors chal- lenged me to look deeper into communications. They pushed me to my limit.”
CMS helped McBee achieve her ultimate passion, her ultimate dream... to get her degree.
“I keep that degree up on my wall, I worked so hard for that degree,” she says now with a laugh. A native of Decatur, McBee originally matriculated at Valdosta State University, but came back closer to home after two years to get that all-important degree, and did so, despite losing her mother prior to her last year at Clayton State.
“I ultimately wanted to finish school even after my mother passed,” she recalls. “My dream was to
complete my degree and to enhance what I knew of communication beyond radio. To know all types of communication.
“I didn’t always see that dream when I was in school, but I saw it afterwards.”
McBee appreciates the contributions of her CMS professors to her communication skills. Going for- ward, those skills have served her well, as she has worked her way from board operator to her current positions as an on–air personality, programming assistant, and executive assistant to the operations manager at Streetz 94.5 FM. She has also served as a weekly entertainment reporter for XM satel- lite radio, “The Buzz in the Streetz News.” At 94.5 FM, she moved from the morning show team to her own show, where she now dishes the latest in entertainment news and gossip.
And, she hasn’t forgotten her alma mater. At the invitation of Sanford Dennis, Career and Intern- ship coordinator in the College of Business at Clayton State, she recently kept a classroom full of students entranced, speaking about careers in com- munications, marketing and radio, and taking part in a long Q&A session.
“There’s an energy, a certain feel, a freedom, to radio,” says this hard-working Clayton State grad- uate. “And music; music was always in me. It was right up my alley.”
BY JOHN SHIFFERT
SPRING 2015 29
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