I met Jahhel Thernelan on my first day here at Florida State University (FSU) through the CARE Summer Bridge Program, but I still did not know much about him so, I wanted to interview him because he is a big inspiration to me. I started off the interview by asking him something that would give us a feeling of who he is.
Q. What is your major and what year are you on?
A. My major is Political Science and I am currently a senior.
During my first week at FSU in the CARE Summer Bridge Program, there was a general body assembly and that is when I got my first glimpse of what a CARE ambassador is. All twenty-five ambassadors had to introduce themselves and give some facts about themselves. From then on, I have been interested in becoming a CARE ambassador because it looked fun and it also looks good on your resumé. I wanted to know what kind of composing they do.
Q. As a CARE ambassador, what type of composing do you do?
A. As a CARE ambassador I have done a lot of composing. One of the things that I have had to compose was a video that all the students had to see on the first day. It was a welcome video and it was so y’all could get to know us.
This only made me more intrigued with the idea of becoming a CARE ambassador because it sounds like it would be so fun! After this, I wanted to see the types of mistakes Jahhel has made when writing because maybe I could capitalize on these mistakes and not make them as frequently as he did.
Q. What are some mistakes you found yourself doing a lot when you were writing papers or doing any other type of work?
A. One of the things that I think I did a lot wrong was that I was too scared to ask for help. Not only from my teachers, but also from going to tutors and having them check on my papers and stuff because I was really prideful and I think that was one of the things I got caught up with cause I thought I was really one of the greatest writers alive. So, I definitely think that just knowing that it is not bad to get help. Like somebody reading over your paper making sure that you wrote everything good, or like you know making sure you have commas in the right places and things like that. You know, just being humble and being able to recognize I needed help.
I am honestly the same. I hate asking for help because I feel like my work would be judged too hard and it would hurt my feelings but, in the end, getting help could be the thing you need in order to get an A in the class. Carrying on, I believe that skills are needed in order to be good at composing and since Jahhel is a senior, he has had time to develop a certain amount of skill and I wanted to know what it was.
Q. What skills have you had to acquire in order to get your work to where it is at now?
A. I definitely had to work on my patience, and I had to work on effectively being able to communicate with other people. Um, being able to read syllabuses, you know being able to read them and understanding what the professor wants from me. It is a lot of qualities, but I feel like the biggest quality for me though, is being able to communicate with people. I feel like it is a really big deal because that really saves a lot of trouble between everybody. So, let’s say somebody does not understand me, me asking him and him being able to communicate back with me what he really wanted is good. Just me being able to communicate with somebody else and getting to figure things out, that really helped me out.
Now that I know the type of skills, he developed over the course of four years, I needed to know how he developed it.
Q. What did you do in order to improve on those skills? Did you practice or did it just get better with time?
A. And that’s where the patience came because it came with time. Cause I mean you can practice it, but you still need the time to make it one hundred percent. So, I definitely feel like being able to be patient and recognize what you need to work on and letting yourself have time to grow is really important.
I guess I will just have to wait to reach my full potential. Jahhel embodies the person I want to become in the future. A CARE ambassador as well as a fulltime college student. I needed to know what type of composing he did the most.
Q. What type of composing do you mostly do now in both college and work?
A. The type of composing I mostly do would probably have to be being able to plan out my day and being able to create like a calendar for myself and what I have to do. So, just being on top of everything and making sure I am not missing anything out of my day and making sure I really exercise my full potential throughout the day, basically scheduling.
In college, I want to be the best I can be at scheduling because that is one of the most important things in college. I have to be able to keep track of everything and know everything that I am going to do in a day. To continue, I am a perfectionist when it comes to my work no matter what it is. I wanted to know if Jahhel goes the extra mile as well.
Q. Do you tend to put a lot of effort in your work? Effort as in edit, implement new ideas, etc.
A. One thing I am very good at is being able to take advice and being able to take what other people say and like try to implement it in what I do and see if it ends up being better. I do tend to put a lot of effort like just being able to recognize that my piece of work needs to get better or even if it’s good where it’s at, it can always be better and always improve. I always try to do something the best I can.
I really do see a lot of myself in my ambassador because we both try to work as hard as we can. However, in high school, I had a tough time getting good grades because I was a heavy procrastinator. I wanted to know if my CARE ambassador does the same thing now in college.
Q. I usually procrastinate before I create something. Do you plan before or just go with the flow and let things play out?
A. *laughs* I plan but you can only plan so much so you never really know how things are going to go. The way I think about it is that you should always have a plan because planning beforehand can prevent a lot of bad things from happening, but you should always be able to go with the flow just in case something switches up. You have to be able to maneuver yourself around obstacles that get in your way.
It's nice to know that my ambassador is not a robot and cannot plan absolutely everything. It makes me feel more at ease and makes me feel like I can actually get to where he is at now. To continue, I am not a very creative person as a writer, so I have never thought of writing for anything other than school. I wanted to know if Jahhel was in the same boat as me.
Q. Do you write during your free time? And if so, what?
A. I write occasionally and what I do write when I write is basically like either my thoughts on papers and journals and stuff, and if not, I tend to write some raps and go to the studio sometimes. Other than that, I don’t really write a lot unless it’s for my music.
I never knew this, and I find it awesome that my ambassador writes music during his free time. To end the interview, I wanted to know the type of composing that I could possibly see in the next 4 years as a new student here at FSU. I finished off the interview by asking:
Q. As a senior at Florida State University, what type of composing have you done throughout the years?
A. I think one of the things I have done wasn’t really at Florida State, but it was definitely during my four years within the Florida State community. I was a DJ for a while, since like my sophomore year. I dj’d for a couple house parties, a couple club parties, and I also dj’d pool parties too, so that really, in itself, helped me find who I was as a composer.
That was really not the answer I was expecting but honestly, I am happy I got it because it tells me that he found himself as a composer throughout the 4 years here and I hope I get to do the same thing during my 4 years.
