About Me

To know me, Jermaine Howerton, is to know that I love words and language just as much as I love to find out the facts about issues I care about. Currently, I work as an assignment editor for News 12 in the Bronx and Brooklyn. My anticipated graduation from Hofstra University will be this spring, with my M.A. in journalism.

During my time at Hofstra, I was a commentator, color analyst, and beat reporter for Radio Hofstra University (WRHU) covering Hofstra Pride’s Men’s Basketball. For WRHU I was an associate producer and radio talent for 88.7FM. Furthermore, I anchored for Hofstra Today in the fall, and got the opportunity to be part of Hofstra Votes Live (HVL), as an on-camera talent. I’ve won multiple Herbie Awards for my performance on HVL and a Communicator Award for my package “No Locker for Racism”.

Prior to Hofstra, I was at Adelphi University where I majored in communications with a concentration in journalism. At Adelphi, I got the opportunity to play basketball at the Division II level.

My most audacious dream job is to become a sportscaster or a sports television personality. Since I can remember, Stuart Scott and Stephen A. Smith were huge influences of mine and I aspire to get to that level.

The reason why I wanted to cover the Covid-19 Effects in NYC Educational Systems in Low Socioeconomic Urban Environments was because in education, there’s evidence that highlights disparities in achievement data particularly in ethnic minority groups. The term “racial and ethnic minority groups” includes people of color with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences.

This hit home for me because growing up in Hempstead, a predominately Black and Hispanic area on Long Island, the graduation rate for Hempstead High School was 40%, classrooms were over the maximum capacity, and students didn’t get the resources they needed to succeed. Opposed to a neighboring district, Garden City High School, an affluent predominantly white area, that has a plethora of resources and a high graduation rate.

Fortunately for me, I got the opportunity to get a private school education, but that wasn’t the case for my friends in the neighborhood. I saw the struggle and difference between schools in low socioeconomic areas and high socioeconomic areas and that motivated me to dig deeper and find out why.

My reasoning for choosing a NYC school was my fascination with urban education and I wanted to specifically see the disparities and barriers that children faced in an urban setting.