About

Who is Zaria Jay?

Thanks to my parents, my name is Zaria Johnson. It’s a pretty cool name, I have to say, but there are two main downsides:

  1. It’s rare to find anyone that can pronounce it correctly.
  2. It’s not very catchy

You’ve got to admit, spelling out the J makes it 10 times more interesting!

Fun Facts

  • I live in a small, boring suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Coming to Kent is probably the most interesting thing that has happened in the past four years.
  • I am a freshman Journalism major at KSU, with an undecided minor. However, I am thinking about double-minoring in Pan-African Studies and Political Science. Or maybe Pan-African Studies andInternational Relations… Stay tuned to find out!
  • I had two cats back home, Tigger, a fat, temperamental, tabby who’d been stuck with me since I was two, and Dash, a black and white speed demon with bad breath. About a year and a half ago, we had to put Tigger down. Having to suddenly be on his own all the time, Dash developed a serious case of separation anxiety… so we bought him a fish! His name’s Kiro. We love Kiro.
  • I wrote my first novel when I was 8, titled “The Girl Who Thought She Could Not Do It“. It’s yet to be published…but I’ll get there one day.
  • I call my mom almost every day.
  • I freeze in anything below 70 degrees.
  • I love to write, and I plan to get involved at one of the student magazines on campus.
  • I love the Office (U.S) with my whole heart,but I also enjoy watching documentaries about…literally anything.

Purpose

Kent State is all about purpose!

Either way, I’ve started this blog as an assignment for my DSCI 10310 (My Story on the Web) course. Bonus fun fact though: I was thinking about starting an actual blog myself a few weeks before classes started!

This blog will mainly be little updates about my life with occasional little rants and ramblings about my experience as a black woman. After all, that’s a huge part of who I am, and I am very proud to say that.

Goal

Coming in to Kent State, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I know I want to write, as a journalist, for underrepresented groups of people across the world, but I’m not sure of my platform. I like magazines, but I would want to write for something with a larger platform than that. Right now, my focus is Multimedia, but who knows how that can change in the next four years.