Darby Baham is a senior, Print Journalism major, Political Science minor from New Orleans, LA. She currently interns with Sister 2 Sister Magazine, but has also interned with ABC News Nightline and Soldier’s Radio and Television. She has participated in several journalism programs including the National Association of Black Journalists’ Broadcast Short-course in 2002, the New York Times Student Journalism Institute and the Fund for American Studies’ Institute on Political Journalism in 2003. She is also a former staff writer for the Hilltop Newspaper.

She always knew her calling in life was to be a writer, someone who inspires others with her words. In fact, in high school, writing was really the only thing she thought she would be doing when she went to college. Yet, coming to Howard University, she quickly found out that writing was only the beginning of what she was destined to do.

Within the second week of her freshman year, she was riding to Pennsylvania State to protest the injustices that were occurring to minorities at that college, but she also learned some things about herself. The first realization she had was that growing up, she was completely sheltered from the destitution that often occurs in urban neighborhoods and sheltered from the discrimination that goes along with being a minority in the United States.

She also realized another calling of hers-she was destined to be someone who helps her generation and the youth of the black community realize their worth. She volunteered with People for the American Way to participate in Voter Empowerment and Awareness activities, including one weekend where some of us traveled to Petersburgh, VA and New Jersey to make sure that everyone knew their rights.

She is involved with campus organizations who offer numerous community service activities, including participating in mentoring programs within the D.C. area and a street cleaning program, such as Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity, Inc. Alpha Tau Chapter and the Louisiana Club. She is a member of the School of Communications’ Annenberg Honors Program, in which she is currently working on her thesis about negative urban advertising and its affect on the self-portrayals and stereotypes of urban youth, and how that affects their desires to attend institutions of higher education. She is also a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Golden Key International Honour Society, has been on the School of Communication’ Deans List since her freshman year, and is the 2004-2005 president of the Howard University Association of Black Journalists.