Jayson Blair's Student Website

Jayson Blair is a journalism student at the University of Maryland at College Park. He has worked as a Metropolitan intern reporter for The New York Times, where he will return as a reporter in May. He has covered national and local news as an intern reporter for The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. He continues working for The Globe as a freelance national correspondent.

Professional Experience: Jayson began his professional journalism career in 1994, when he joined the staff of the Times Community Newspapers as a summer intern. He later worked as a summer intern for The Fairfax Journal, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe, where he did seperate tours of duty on Metro and National. He has also worked as a freelance reporter for dozens of newspapers, including The Washington Times, The Prince George's Journal, The Montgomery Journal, The Loudoun Times-Mirror, The Prince WIlliam Journal and The Fauqirer Times-Democrat.

College Journalism: Jayson was the editor of The Diamondback, the daily student newspaper at the University of Maryland and particpated in the College of Journalism's elite Capital News Service program, where he covered education from the statehouse bureau in Annapolis, Md. Prior to that he worked as a reporter for The Diamondback and The Liberty Champion.

Education: Since arriving at Maryland in 1995, Jayson has focused on studying public affairs, government and politics and history, in addition to journalism. He has participated in seminars at numerous journalism conferences and the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and fellowships on the Chesapeake Bay and Montana for the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. He as received the Paul Berg Diamondback Scholarship, a Scripps Howard Foundation Journalism Scholarship, the Gertrude Poe Community Journalism Scholarship, a Washington, D.C. Society of Professional Journalists Scholarship and a Times Community Newspapers Scholarship.

Teaching and Advising: Jayson has worked as a teaching assistant for EDCP 108-O, an introduction to college life course for journalism students, and JOUR 101 (Professional Orientation). He has served as a tutor for students learning grammar and basic journalism, as well as an academic and professional advisor.

Poetry from Jayson Blair's student website:

A burnt-out heart, torched and charred by the journeys of life Its been carved out of my chest by disappointments like a knife. The experience was blinding, converse to a time when light was all I could see. The bitter darkness of love lost long ago, took over nearly every ounce of me.

From the moment that the splinters of my heart flew and knocked out the lights. That point until now, I had refused to give anyone a chance to be Miss Right. I revel in the blackness, blinding boarding one meaningless ship to another. In women who are as beautiful as kaleidoscopes, I see only the absence of colors.

Happy to be with many women—and yet still be alone. Don't really mind the darkness, not searching for a way back home.

And then came the moment that I saw you, I hesitantly stare. Afraid that someone -- including myself -- will notice, that I might actually care. Sacred silly that my head might realize, there is still a heart in there.

In so many ways a reflection of me. In many others, so much better than I'll ever be.

I hesitantly glance at you, beautification from a distance. Admiring your mind, talents, beauty and cool independence. I stare for a while, hold my cards close to my chest. Too bad what's left of my heart is obviously worn on my vest.

You take me back to a time, when I remembered at the least that there were colors to see. Swirling, reflecting, alluring rays of lights, a place where rainbows of life surrounded me. As I look into the those hazel brown, burnt sienna eyes. The green sparkle on the pupil, illicits a smile, and allows for a moment, to feel my tears dry.

I see their hazel amber, as they allow rays of light into my darkened life. Separating the red, yellow,blue and green,like a gentlepaletteknife.

Eyes, a soft heathery canvass, a window into to your heart. Your mind, beauty and talents, an alluring combination that makes up the color chart

I recognize and understand your occasional insecurity. If you could only see the way those hazel eyes reflect back on me.

Do you see how those light brown eyes cause so many colors in my heart to dance? A window into something special, that makes me want to give "that word" a chance. [Ed. note—Don't quit your day jo...nevermind.]

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