Asta Hemenway
Executive Editor
Racing seven arduous miles up a mountain, or Earth’s attempt to reach the heavens, began unraveling her physical core, yet still it could not collapse the mind that was full of determination in Asta Hemenway. These mountains spend forever gathering knowledge, the type of knowledge a human could flirt with in dreams…
Asta always has been energetic and curious about the world. She was born in Tallahassee, yet growing up biracial and Senegalese has affected her belief in pan-cultural significance. Years of involvement in cross-country running, chorus, French honor society, and service clubs fed her eager interests. She enjoys TV, cooking, photography, travel, indie rock/alternative folk music like The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, and Milky Chance and lo-fi rap.
Journalism captivated Asta first in middle school. There, she co-ran the news program, serving as an anchor, camera person, and editor. She graduated high school on May 2018. Now, after serving her third term as editor, Asta will transfer to the University of Florida College of Journalism in Spring 2020.
Alexa Hubbell
Podcast Editor
Born and raised under the sunny skies and on the star-studded streets of Los Angeles, California, Alexa grew up surrounded by people who spoke many languages, came from other countries, and cultures different from her own. From the moment she could string words together to form sentences, she began to document the stories people told her of their hometowns, in their home countries, some on continents on the other side of the globe.
Captivated and inspired by the idea of a whole world existing beyond the horizon, overflowing with stories to be heard and told, she began to explore the world of writing as a career. With hopes of someday running pieces somewhere between the stylings of Rick Steves and Anthony Bourdain, Alexa returned to college to pursue an education in Journalism, Communications, and multi-language studies.
She hopes to one day live the life of a nomad, treating the world as her home, and sharing the stories of the people she meets and the experiences she has on the journey of her lifetime.
Jalen Monroe
Social Media Editor
Jalen Jamaal Monroe is a determined, creative and open-minded person who will do any means necessary to succeed. From Tallahassee, he was born in the morning hours of July 20, 2000.
Throughout his elementary and secondary career, Jalen attended Florida High School. Jalen spent his entire secondary career being affiliated with many organizations throughout Tallahassee. He still spends his time volunteering throughout the Tallahassee and Monticello communities. After graduating in May 2018, Jalen chose to further his education at Tallahassee Community College in hopes to get his AA degree, to then transfer to Florida State University majoring in Communications or Advertising. During his previous fall semester, Jalen served as a Senator with the Student Government Association. He provided leadership for students encouraging them to join organizations across campus.
Jalen is a Subway Sandwich Artist by day, and a Director/Coach by night. He spends his time working with his students teaching them the Art of Color guard. He has experience in composing, designing and choreographing different marching band and winter guard shows. His love for design comes from playing with computers, which eventually led to learning different types of graphic design software. Jalen is an Adobe Certified Associate (ACA), credentials that certifies individuals have the skill to plan, design, build and maintain effective communications using different forms of digital media. Follow his life on Instagram @JalenJamaal.
Chyna Varner
Staff Member
Always a daydreamer and fascinated with the intricate laws that structured the world as we know it, Chyna Varner was born to do more than surrender herself to the leisure of binge-watching Law and Order SVU, CSI: Miami, or whatever crime program appeared on the television.
Interest in what is subjectively the “right” thing to do, being a rule-breaker is not a norm for her. She always made sure that she focused on grades like Family Guy focuses on obscure references. This future attorney was born in one of the greatest cities in the world known as Canton, Ohio. The state of the pro-football Hall of Fame and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was where this young superstar realized her dreams of doing many activities. From a cheerleader to soccer then baton twirling to color guard, it is kind of hard for her to sit still.
Although seemingly all over the place, she has a life plan to finish her second year at Tallahassee Community College in Fall 2019, and transfer to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Fall 2020. Her major will be Criminal Justice and with a minor in Journalism. Soon afterwards, she will pursue law school and become an attorney, then a judge later on.
Stephen Fryson III
Staff Member
On July 12, 1999, a superstar was born, who is said to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Stephen Fryson III he was born into a two-parent household, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t experience hardships growing up. He and his little brother Tyler, both attended private school for several years while their parents worked as hard as they could to make ends meet. Watching his parents work hard each day motivated Stephen to shoot for the stars and dream big. He graduated from Leon High School in 2017, and now studies at Tallahassee Community College.
Stephen is excited by Jesus, acting, anime and the gym. After college he plans to write, direct, and star in movies. This will give his peers the opportunity to say “I know someone who’s famous.”
Genevieve Printiss
Staff Member
Genevieve Printiss lived on a nature preserve much of her childhood. She was home schooled student, prior to college because of the rural nature of her home. During her sophomore year of high school, Genevieve’s family moved to the Coastal town of Carrabelle where she attended public school and ran Cross Country.
Genevieve’s parents both graduated from Florida State University, and her father is a herpetologist with the Nature Conservancy and her mother owns a carpentry business.
Ever since she was a child, Genevieve has enjoyed writing. Throughout elementary school she even sent a five-page monthly newsletter out to her friends. Sadly, the stories never seemed get picked up by larger papers.
Genevieve now enjoys writing as a hobby and runs Cross County for Tallahassee Community College. Thanks to her outdoorsy upbringing, she is perusing a degree in Natural Resource Conservation with Pre-Law. The welfare of the environment as well as improving public policy has always been very important to Genevieve, and she hopes to find a career that merges both interests. If all goes to plan, Genevieve will be transferring to the University of Florida fall of 2020.
Anandah Brandy
Staff Member
Anandah Brandy took the phrase “Break a leg” literally when she fell down at the age of 10 while performing an act at home. She had to wear crutches for a month. Now, she’s hoping to actually “Break a leg” as she pursues her future journalism career.
Born and raised in St. Maarten, she has migrated to Tallahassee Florida to enroll in college. She is now enrolled in Tallahassee Community College, in her second year. Majoring in Journalism, she will transfer to FAMU College of Journalism.
Anandah’s hobbies include writing, photography, music, and researching factual information. She’s written her own fiction novels in the past, was a part of a newspaper team as a teenager, and wrote and recorded her first song at 15; she has continued writing ever since. She owns her own professional camera, and is a professional photographer at different events. She even manages an Instagram photography page to showcase her art. She usually spends her time researching daily on beneficial information to gain knowledge. She researches on natural remedies of healthcare, skin care, and dieting.
Anandah is very shy most of the time, but is going into the current Fall Semester with an open eye for new friendships and opportunities without her shyness holding her back any longer!
Karla Grande
Staff Member
Karla Grande was born in Vans Nuys, California in January 21, 1998. Her parents are Salvadorian. She has two brothers, one is younger and the other is older which she makes her in the middle child. She attended Greensboro Elementary School and West Gadsden High School. Also, she played soccer from middle to high School. She graduated Lively Technical Center for Commercial Photography in May of 2018.
On her spare time, she enjoys hanging out with her friends and family, watching Netflix, drawing, photography, playing with her mix chihuahua named Blacky, makeup, video games, shopping, anime, listening to music and traveling. Karla is a huge fan of Selena Quintanilla and the Brazilian Soccer Team.
She is now attending Tallahassee Community College to get her Associate of Arts degree and then plans to transfer to Florida State University for Business Management. She wants to create her own business for entertainment and become the biggest female entrepreneur.
Sophia Ziemer
Staff Member
One summer day in Miami, Sophia Ziemer entered the world, while from afar, “dalé” could be heard in the infamous land of Pitbull. Born to a Swiss-German father and an Ecuadorian mother, Sophia would be the first ever American citizen birthed into both sides of her lineage.
She grew up in a family with five siblings. This might have caused one to huddle up in their own shell, but not Sophia. Considered the black sheep of her family did not stop her from achieving any goal she set for herself. She taught herself to play countless instruments, which ultimately led her to have an extremely diverse music taste.
After taking a TV production class in the tenth grade, she realized that she had truly found her passion and calling: to produce content for the public. She is now on route to get her A.A. from Tallahassee Community College. She hopes to transfer to Florida State University and major in Digital Media Communications to make an impact on the fast-paced digital world that we live in.
YaSin Ali Abdul-Musawwir
Staff Member
YaSin Ali Abdul-Musawwir is Muslim and is a Tallahassee native. His father graduated from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University School of Business and his mother graduated from Florida State University School of Finance.
As avid sports fan, YaSin grew up playing football, trained in boxing, and practiced Kung Fu. Bilingual, he speaks Classical Arabic fluently. YaSin’s favorite movies, though in no particular order, are: Malcolm X, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Sense and Sensibility, Snatch and Lawrence of Arabia.
YaSin’s hobbies are cooking, driving and he loves swimming and horseback riding. He writes poetry, graphic novels, short stories and lyrics, but his passion and area of focus is screenwriting. His immediate professional goal is to become a professional writer-producer and start his own production company.
YaSin loves learning, is a voracious reader and views education as an opportunity to continuously filter out bad thought. As Co-Founder and President of The Film Society at Tallahassee Community College, YaSin serves as lead script consultant with a passion for creative collaboration, story analysis, brainstorming and acute problem solving. His plan is to attend Film School for undergraduate studies before eventually attending Law School and “God Knows Best”.
Madison Ricco
Staff Member
Cries were heard on June 19, 2001 in Lauderdale, Florida Holy Cross Hospital, and Madison Joy Ricco entered the world. Her mother, a loud New Yorker, who thought she was not having any more kids, her Madison in her arms.
Madison, her mom, and two older sisters moved a lot throughout her childhood. Despite tough times, they always had each other. Finally, they settled in Coconut Creek, Florida where Madison loved to skateboard around town and lounge at the beach with friends.
Writing has always been her outlet, and has remained as such. Initially, during grade school she never imagined going away for college, it did not seem like an option. Until she met Alex, an adopted sibling, whose guidance and friendship inspired her to want greater things in life.She worked harder in school and realized that moving away for college was a valid option.
Now 18 years old, she will major in Journalism and Communications when she transfers to Florida State University. Living in Tallahassee, Florida, and attending Tallahassee Community College, she genuinely could not be happier about where she is now and what the future holds.
Samuel Cuffe
Staff Member
This young filmmaker sets his sights on telling the world a good story.
Samuel Cuffe is a 19 year-old student at Tallahassee Community College with the burning desire to someday be part of Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts. From an early age he always had a burning passion for entertainment, whether it be making “funny” sketches with his cousins on a cheap camcorder as a kid or preforming in high school theater, he knew he wanted to entertain. For the longest time he had always seen himself becoming an actor or a musician, but it was after he toured FSU’s excellent film program. There he realized he had a deep passion for film making and wanted to learn everything about it to become a movie director someday.
His inspiration for film making is drawn from the titans of industry such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Wes Anderson, and his all-time favorite director: Quentin Tarantino.
The majority of his time is spent focusing on school and working towards his goal of joining FSU’s film program. In his free time he likes to hang out with friends, play videogames, or work on short videos that he uploads on YouTube.
Taijha Ellington
Staff Member
As a young woman, Taijha chose to place her heart in the hands of her Lord and Savior. Guided by faith each day, she will develop into the person God needs her to be in order to save millions of other souls.
Taijha grew up in a small city called Ocala. Most of her family lives there. Taijha’s zeal and energy has created opportunities for her to continue to prosper and reach toward her goals. Tajiha wants to travel, as she desires to witness different cultures.
Blessed with the family that she has, taught her to not allow her body, mind and soul to become lost from the dangers that the world can welcome in her life. Strengthening her spirit has freed her from all restraints and has allowed her to develop into the person that she means to become. She remains grateful for what has come her way and what has yet to come.
Eddie Hundley
Staff Member
Eddie Hundley is a second year student at Tallahassee Community College from Sarasota, Florida. He plans on transferring to Florida A&M University to obtain a degree in Broadcast Journalism.
Eddie uses writing as therapy. He considers himself a peer mentor. Eddie is often around his nephews, nieces, godsons and cousins. He wants nothing less than for them to be better than he was and not make similar mistakes.
Eddie is a former high school football player, track runner, and basketball player. He aspires to become a Sports Journalist, as his long-term goal is to conduct live and post-game segments via podcast like Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe.
He credits Shannon Sharpe as his inspiration to pursue the career. He said that like Sharpe, he too hopes to prove that remaining passionate about sports after leaving the field and can ultimately create job opportunities for the future.