How can you actually make an impact? Research ways to be an effective advocate for a cause, someone you know, or even yourself. What are 3 things you could do today to start making a difference? 

Skills

Be an advocate.

Enroll in a journalism class at your school, in your city, or online and explore the different elements of the field. Is this something you would be interested in majoring in?

Education

Take a class in journalism.

Are you passionate about making a difference in your spare time? Search for some local social justice organizations or projects and offer to volunteer! What cause(s) are you most passionate about?

Advice

Volunteer for a social justice organization. 

Radio and Television Announcers

Speak or read from scripted materials, such as news reports or commercial messages, on radio or television. May announce artist or title of performance, identify station, or interview guests.

Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Artistic

Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Enterprising

Second Interest High-Point

Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Social

Third Interest High-Point

First Interest High-Point

Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Investigative

Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

Conventional

Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Realistic

Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Announcers

Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations

Media and Communication Workers

Prepare and deliver news, sports, or weather reports, gathering and rewriting material so that it will convey required information and fit specific time slots.

Read news flashes to inform audiences of important events.

Select program content, in conjunction with producers and assistants, based on factors such as program specialties, audience tastes, or requests from the public.

Study background information to prepare for programs or interviews.

Comment on music and other matters, such as weather or traffic conditions.

Interview show guests about their lives, their work, or topics of current interest.

Discuss various topics over the telephone with viewers or listeners.

Host civic, charitable, or promotional events that are broadcast over television or radio.

Make promotional appearances at public or private events to represent their employers.

Announce musical selections, station breaks, commercials, or public service information, and accept requests from listening audience.

Keep daily program logs to provide information on all elements aired during broadcast, such as musical selections and station promotions.

Locate guests to appear on talk or interview shows.

Describe or demonstrate products that viewers may purchase through specific shows or in stores.

Coordinate games, contests, or other on-air competitions, performing such duties as asking questions and awarding prizes.

Attend press conferences to gather information for broadcast.

Provide commentary and conduct interviews during sporting events, parades, conventions, or other events.

Give network cues permitting selected stations to receive programs.

Moderate panels or discussion shows on topics such as current affairs, art, or education.

Identify stations, and introduce or close shows, ad-libbing or using memorized or read scripts.

Write and edit video and scripts for broadcasts.

Maintain organization of the music library.

Audio control consoles

Audio playback equipment

Compact disk CD players

Desktop computers

Digital audio recorders

Earpieces

Headset microphones

Headsets

Laptop computers

Microphone stands

Mixing desks

Multi-line telephone systems

Personal computers

Record turntables

Smart phones

Tablet computers

Teleprompters

Touch screen computer monitors

Adobe Systems Adobe Audition

Audion Laboratories VoxPro

Avid Technology Pro Tools

Burli Software Burli Newsroom System

Dalet Digital Media Systems Dalet Media Life

Database software

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Word

Program logging software

Statistical processing software

Web browser software

Social & Political Activist/TV Personality

<p>In Philadelphia, the Roadtrip Nation team climbs to the top of the clock tower at city hall to meet Andrew Lins, a conservation preserver working on restoring the Liberty Bell. Next up is an interview with Billy King, team president of the Philadelphia 76ers. After traveling to New York, they interview "Cousin" Jeff Johnson, a social and political activist with his own show on BET.</p>

Philadelphia - New York City

Hi, there. &gt;&gt; How are you? &gt;&gt; Trying to get everything straight here. How you doing man, thank you so much man, able man. [MUSIC] Success isn't logical, and most of the people that are successful, whether it's success, or whether they're great. They didn't do what everybody else did, they didn't go the same routes everybody else went, college is not a yellow brick road to success. Education is not a yellow brick road to success, because the people that think out of the box and whatever discipline they're in, are the ones that shake the world. I mean, nobody's looking around at the people following a manual, saying my God, they followed that manual in a way that was just inspiring. I mean, it's the people who throw the manual away and say, there's something beyond this that I can share, that I can give, or that I can invest. That are the people that become successful. &gt;&gt; The only thing that I was going to ask with that was what were you thinking when you were our age? &gt;&gt; First, for me I was an athlete, I ran track, I was All-American. Most of my life I guess I started running when I was seven. And went to college on a track scholarship, so for me, it was all I wanted to do is run. So I went to college not concerned about what I was gonna do academically. I was going to the olympics and that was it, and in the midst of this whole college experience. There's a guy by the name of Gale Nelson. He was the president of the Black Student Union at my university, the University of Toledo. And he saw something in me, and said, Jeff, I want you to be a part of the BSU. Why don't you come to this highschool with me, and talk? Why don't you come to this community center with me, and talk. I said, cool, I'll roll with you, whatever, and I started getting more and more involved in the black student union, very similar to what I'd done in high school. And my coach said to me, I didn't bring you here for that. He said you're spending too much time doing this, I didn't bring you here for this. I brought you here to go to class and run track. After about two or three times of him threatening my scholarship, I was like, screw you, keep it. I gonna still be on the team, but I don't want your scholarship, so now you can't tell me nothing. So I got back to my dorm ten minutes after that conversation and my dad is already calling, what are you doing, you're gonna go back to the coaches office. You're gonna apologize, you're gonna tell him that you had a temporary bout with insanity, something and you're gonna go back on the team. And I said, I'm not, he said, well, you had, I remember this conversation like it was yesterday, he said. You went to the University of Toledo to run track, therefore, you have obligation to the University of Toledo to fulfill the contract that you signed when you accepted the scholarship. So therefore, if you renege on that contract, you're a quitter and I don't support quitters. I'm like all right, bye, and he said, no I don't think you understand what I'm saying. He said quitters don't get to wishing quitters don't get books. Quitters don't get board, quitters don't get rent money, quitters don't get nothing. So I said I appreciate the way you feel, bye, bye. And me and my dad never talked about it again. And maybe a year and a half later I have become president of the black student union and we had spent a whole. We had spent a bunch of time creating networks with black students unions at other schools and I hosted my dad he came up to the conference and came to some of the events and he was like I have to go back to Columbus. He was living in Columbus, Ohio at the time and as I'm walking him to his car he's like I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't see what you saw, and that for me was validation because at the end of the day I wasn't living his life, I was living my life. And as I go around the country and as I talk to college students and as I work with young people. Young people are destroying their calling in the name of satisfying what their parents were either unable to do or they're walking out this remote controlled life that their parents are controlling. And I just believe that my purpose on this earth is to engage those young people. That hopefully they wouldn't make some of the mistakes that I've made, that they wouldn't have to go through some of the things that I and others have had to go through. And I know, every night when I go to sleep that I've done exactly what I'm supposed to do. And so at this stage in the game, I'm afraid not to do what I'm supposed to do. Not to do what I'm called to do, not to do what I was created to do. And I think so many of us are unhappy spiritually, emotionally, even physically because we're revolting against the universe by trying to do something with our time and our lives that we were never created to do. &gt;&gt; I'm gonna ask this question because Like I said, I've wanted to go to law school all my life since I was little, and now I find that I don't wanna do that anymore. But instead, I wanna take this path over here, and I want to do something in music. And I feel like I'm giving up on law school, so what is giving up and what is just deciding to do something else. &gt;&gt; Man, here is the key to the cell that you've created for yourself. What I'm saying is, you ever wanted to do something so much that you tell everybody you wanna do it. You share with everybody that this is what you're gonna do. And then now, what you're trying to live up to is the expectations that you created for everybody else. So, my mom and them is expecting me to go to law school. Not cuz they told me, but because I said that's what I was gonna do. But the bottom line is, you created that cell, nobody else created it for you. Which means you got the keys to say, you know what y'all, I changed my mind, I don't wanna do this no more. And if people agree or disagree, so what, they don't have to live your life. They don't have to go to work every day, they don't have to pay your bills, they don't have to raise your children. They don't have to be the ones that are responsible for your light and your gift. So if you decide that you don't wanna do that anymore then tell the people who you said, you know what y'all some stuff happened to me and I don't wanna do that. And you gotta be honest enough with yourself to understand is this something I was created to do or is this just something I like. Is this something I was created to do or is this something I think will make me look good. Because what I see, a lot of young people doing especially, is they think that they were created to do something because they ain't seen nothing else. Or they haven't opened their minds up to other opportunities. So often we confine ourselves to this little box of doctor, lawyer, engineer, teacher, business person, free yourselves.. This is my key though. &gt;&gt; [LAUGH] &gt;&gt; I appreciate everything, man, the conversation, the wisdom, everything. &gt;&gt; Thank you. 

Interview

I guess I started running when I was seven, and um, went to college on a track scholarship. So for me, it was all I wanted to do was run. I was going to the Olympics, and that was it. And...in the midst of... this whole college experience, there was a guy by the name of Gale Nelson. He was the president of the Black Student Union at my university, University of Toledo. And uh, he saw something in me, and I started getting more and more involved in the Black Student Union, very similar to what I had done in high school. And my coach said to me, "I didn't bring you here "for that." After about two or three times of him threatening my scholarship, I was like, "You know, um, I'ma still be on the team, but I don't want "your scholarship." I got back to my dorm ten minutes after that conversation, and my dad is already calling. He said, "You're a quitter, "and I don't support quitters." I'm like, "Aight...bye." Because at the end of the day, I wasn't living his life. I was living my life, and I know every night when I go to sleep that I've done exactly what I'm supposed to do. 

Jeff Johnson Highlight

>> Trying to get everything straight here how you doing man thank you so much man Abel man. [MUSIC] >> Success isn't logical. And, you know most of the people that are successful, whether it's success or whether they're great, they didn't do what everybody else did, They didn't go the same routes everybody else went. College is not a yellow brick road to success, education is not a yellow brick road to success. Because it's the people that think out of the box and whatever, whatever discipline they're in, are the ones that shake the world. I mean nobody's looking around at the people following a manual, saying, my god, they followed that manual in a way that was just inspiring. I mean if the people who throw the manual away and said there's something beyond this that I can share, that I can give, that I can invest, that are the people that become successful. 

Individualism

Success

Success Isn't Logical

I'm gonna ask this question because, like I've said, I've wanted to go to law school all my life since I was little. And now I find that I don't wanna do that anymore, but instead, I wanna take this path over here, and I want to do something in music. And I feel like I'm giving up on law school. So what is giving up, and what is just deciding to do something else. >> Man, here is the key to the cell that you've created for yourself. What I'm saying is you ever wanted to do something so much that you tell everybody you wanna do it. You share with everybody that this is what you're gonna do. And then now, what you're trying to live up to is the expectations that you created for everybody else. So, my mom and them is expecting me to go to law school. >> [LAUGH] >> Not cuz they told me, but because I said that's what I was gonna do. But the bottom line is you created that sale. Nobody else created it for you, which means you got the keys to say, you know what y'all, I changed my mind. I don't wanna do this no more. And if people agree or disagree, so what? They don't have to live your life. They don't have to go to work everyday. They don't have to pay your bills. They don't have to raise your children. They don't have to be the ones that are responsible for your light and your gift. So if decide that you don't wanna do that anymore, then tell the people who you said, you know it y'all, some stuff has happened to me, and I don't want to do this. And you got to be honest enough with yourself to understand is this something I was created to do or is this just something I like. Is this something I was created to do or is this something I think will make me look good? Because what I see a lot of people, a lot of young people doing especially, is they think that they were created to do something cuz they see nothing else, and they haven't opened their minds up to other opportunities. But so often, we confine ourselves to this little box of doctor, lawyer, engineer, teacher, business person. Free yourselves [INAUDIBLE]. This is my keys though, so. >> Appreciate everything, man. >> Thank you, all, very much. >> The conversation, the wisdom, everything, man. >> Thank you. 

Pressure

Free Yourself

What were you thinking when you were our age? What all [CROSSTALK] >> First, for me, I was an athlete. I ran track, I was all American. Most of my life, I guess. I started running when I was seven, and went to college on a track scholarship. So for me, it was all I wanted to do was run. So I went to college not concerned about what I was gonna do academically. I was going to the Olympics and that was it. And in the midst of this whole college experience, there's a guy by the name of Gayle Nelson. He was the president of the Black Student Union in my university, the University of Toledo. And he saw something in me. And said, Jeff, I want you to be a part of the BSU. Why don't you come to this high school with me and talk? Why don't you come to this community center with me and talk? I said, cool, I'll roll with you whatever. Then I started getting more and more involved in the black student union, very similar to what I had done in high school. And my coach said to me, I didn't bring you here for that. He's saying, you're spending too much time doing this. I didn't bring you here for this. I brought you here to go to class and run track. After about two or three times of him threatening my scholarship, I was like, screw you. Keep it. I'm gonna still be on the team, but I don't want your scholarship. So now you can't tell me nothing. So I got back to my dorm ten minutes after that conversation and my dad is already calling. Like what the hell is wrong with you, what are you doing? You're gonna go back to the coaches office you're gonna apologize, you're gonna tell him that you had a temporary bout of insanity, something. And you're gonna go back on the team, and I said, I'm not. He said well, you had, I remember this conversation like it was yesterday, he said, you went to the University of Toledo, to run track, therefore you have an obligation to the University of Toledo. To fulfill the contract that you sign when you accepted the scholarship. So, therefore, if you renege on that contract, you're a quitter, and I don't support quitters. I'm, like, all right. Bye. He said, no, I don't think you understand what I'm saying. He said quitters don't get tuition. Quitters don't get books, quitters don't get bored, quitters don't get rent money, quitters don't get nothing. So I said, I appreciate the way you feel, bye. Bye. And you know, me and my dad never talked about it again. And maybe a year and a half later, I had become president of the black student union and we had spend a whole, we had spent a bunch of time creating networks with black student unions at other schools and I hosted my dad he came up to the conference and came to some of the events and he was like I got to go back to Columbus. He was living in Columbus, Ohio at the time and as i'm walking him to his car he's, like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't see what you saw. And that for me was validation, because at the end of the day I wasn't living his life. I was living my life. And as I go around the country, and as I talk to college students, and as I work with young people, young people are destroying their calling in the name of satisfying what their parents were either unable to do. Or they're walking out this remote control life that their parents are controlling. And I just believe that my purpose on this Earth is to engage those young people, that hopefully they wouldn't make some of the mistakes that I've made, that they wouldn't have to go through some of the things that I and others have had to go through. And I know, every night when I go to sleep, that I've done exactly what I'm supposed to do. And so at this stage in the game, I'm afraid. Not to do what I'm supposed to do. Not to do what I'm called to do. Not to do what I was created to do. And I think so many of us are unhappy spiritually, emotionally, even physically, because we're revolting against the universe by trying to do something with our time and our lives that we were never created to do. 

Family

I Wasn't Living His Life

At the end of the day, I recognize that there is a nation, there are a nation of young people who struggle with some of the same things that I struggled with, and struggle with things worse than I've struggled with. There's a nation of young people that are dealing with not all just the social and political issues that I'm sure Fred talked about, but also issues of identity, issue of self-esteem. Issue of empowerment, issue of clarity of thought, issue of the ability to be critical thinkers and not just follow what they're told to do. And I just believe that my purpose on this earth is to engage those young people, that hopefully they wouldn't make some of the mistakes that I've made. That they wouldn't have to go through some of the things that I and others have had to go through. And I know every night when I go to sleep that I've done exactly what I'm supposed to do. And so at this stage in the game, I'm afraid not to do what I'm supposed to do, not to do what I'm called to do, not to do what I was created to do. All I wanna do is be an example to my children the same way my father was an example to me, the same way my mother was an example to me in different ways. So that they don't have to be freed slaves walking around, thinking that they're doing what they've been called to do because somebody is validating them with a paycheck or a promotion. 

Self-Reflection

Values

My Calling

None of the success I have, none of the opportunities that I have, none of the things that I am doing has anything to do with me. It has to do with the young people that one day may feel like something I say is empowering or the communities that are being educated by the information that I am sharing. Or the individual who is recognizing that maybe I need to go in a different direction because what I'm doing right now isn't what I'm supposed to be doing. None of this is about me. And I'm humbled. I'm humbled. I was walking over here before I was able to get a cab, cuz it was too hot to keep walking. &gt;&gt; [LAUGH] &gt;&gt; Why do these people wanna interview me? What is it that I'm doing that is noteworthy enough? And I'm not that smart. And I'm not that strategic. For me to have been blessed with some of the things I've been blessed with. And I recognize that has nothing to do with anything but the fact that everyday I wake up I ask myself, am I walking in the place that I'm supposed to be walking? Am I doing what it is that I'm supposed to be doing? Am I serving where I'm supposed to be serving? And when I go to sleep at night, asking myself what did I do wrong and how can I learn from it? How can I catapult myself from this mistake so that I don't make the same mistake? And when you ask yourself those questions, it's not about, what did my boss say? It's not about, what did my professor say? We all play the game. And so we get a degree if we need a degree to operate in the field that we wanna operate in. But we were not created to do it. How meaningless is our life if our life was given to us to be validated by some institution that said we complete some classes and some company that says we complete a list of tasks? Give me a break. I know I was created for more than that. Those things are tools that we're supposed to use to be able to do what it is we were created to do, not the other way around. 

Fulfillment

The Tools

How does success or greatness ever come without risking something? I mean, it doesn't. People that are safe are safe. But they not necessarily successful. I mean, ask any successful person or any great person. Did they take risks, and did they come out on top every single time, and I'm guarantee you they'll say no. I mean how many times did Gates have to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before he lived in a $40 million mansion? I mean how many times did Russell Simmons wasn't able to do something before Deaf Jam popped. How can these people who have found worldly success within business or within athletics or within anything else? Say that they didn't risk anything. That other people weren't willing to risk. And so I remember, yes, there are times when I've been strategic and there are times when I've been compulsive. But both were connected to the understanding that I knew that, that it was time to take a risk. It was time to move outside the comfort zone. 

Risk

As I go around the country and as I talk to college students and as I work with young people, young people are destroying their calling in the name of satisfying what their parents were either unable to do or they're walking now this remote control life that their parents are controlling. And at the end of the day, it's totally and completely disconnected from their passion, their calling and their purpose. And so I try not to come in between parents and their kids. But at the end of the day, this isn't their life to live. This was not my parents life to live. This was not my father's life to live. This wasn't my grandparents life to live. They taught me to be a critical thinker. They provided me with the resources in many cases to be were I was. So how in the world can I turn my back on everything they taught me, because of what they think I should be doing with my life. It's different from what innately I know, I should be doing with my life. And even if I'm not sure that here's what my profession is gonna be in five years, I'm gonna do this and this is where I'm gonna work and here's where I'm gonna retire. I still know inside for my spirit that where I am gonna mesh. I know if I'm in these classes and none of this makes any sense to me. Not even from an intellectual level, but spiritually where I am just does not fit with this foolishness that these people are trying to teach me is what I need to do when I get out of school. Beyond that, I think that so often we're taught to be plugged into the matrix. And by that, I mean, we wake up. We go to work, we go to school, we do what we´re told. We come home, we got to sleep, we get up and do the same thing. Am I saying education is bad? Absolutely not, but what I am saying is institutions condition you for other institutions. School conditions you for the next set of school, which conditions you for the next of school which conditions you for the university which conditions you for a 9 to 5 job where you are contributing to the system without ever thinking. Which is why so often, the people who haven't gone outside and traveled. Who haven't done internships, who haven't experienced activities through student leadership are less likely to find what they love to do. Because they've been so plugged in to the system that they never knew who they were in the first place. And so I think what I've learned through my own experience was that there's always a time when I realize that this is enough. It's time for me to put myself in another challenging situation. That's uncomfortable, but this preparing for the next blessing. And so every institution I've been in, it was a time when I realized while other people were struggling to get into this spot. I realized this wasn't the spot. So I did that when i was at the NAACP. I did that when I was working for Russell. I did that when I worked for other organizations and it's never been on bad terms. It's just okay, I've done as much as I can do here. I don't need to be here anymore. And even though I don't know what's exactly next, I know I don't need to be here. So it's time to go. 

Jeff Johnson

Social & Political Activist/TV Personality

Videos

Jeff Johnson

Milestones

Education

Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

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Politics

Television

Upholding a Cause and Belief