Photo credit: Darryl D. Smith

Shane Hefner, out of prison for three years, has a new outlook.

Today, Hefner is a 34-year-old director of strategic promotions at DallasWeekly.com in Texas, the Web site of the African American weekly. His story of soul-searching and personal improvement so impressed directors of the National Association of Black Journalists that they named him 2005 Student Journalist of the Year.

Hefner left prison with a drive to overcome the rigid obstacles often created by checking %93yes%94 in the box on most job applications that asks whether applicants have criminal records.

%93I made myself a promise that when I got out, that I was going to do everything I had to do to make a success out of myself,%94 Hefner said. %93I didn%92t have time to waste. I had to come out, and straight up, just get on it.%94

He had earned an associate of arts degree in 2001 from Western Texas College while in prison but after he was released, he was denied admission to Dallas Baptist University because of his criminal record, he said.

But he was nudged into Paul Quinn College by Cheryl Smith, who was teaching in the communications department at the historically black college in Dallas. Smith, who was then on the NABJ board of directors, encouraged him when he visited her office in 2002.

In Atlanta at the annual NABJ convention, he passed out leaflets in the Hyatt hotel in support of Smith%92s candidacy for NABJ president.

Eventually, Hefner had internships with ABC, the Dallas Weekly and local gospel radio stations. He graduated in May from Paul Quinn College with a 3.9 average and a bachelor of arts degree in communications.

However, his life was not always swelling with triumphs.

Hefner explained his parents were not very strict and allowed him to explore his rough, south Dallas surroundings, which were infested with drug dealers, pimps and con artists.

Soon, Hefner embraced the fast life. According to Hefner, hustling was always natural to him.

%93I came up with [an] understanding that there is a time that you gotta do what you gotta do,%94 Hefner said. %93It was always a second nature to hustle or try to do something for that extra money.%94

When Hefner wasn%92t looking for the fast dollar, he was flinging jabs at his classmates, who constantly teased him for having a mixed racial background %96 American Indian, French and German on his mother%92s side and was black on his father%92s.

Though his parents never graduated from high school, Hefner dreamed of attending college and received scholarship offers to play basketball at schools such as Kansas State and East Oklahoma University. But almost as soon as he received those offers, his lost his freedom.

%93With selling drugs, using drugs, my life kinda just tumbled,%94 Hefner said.

He landed behind bars on aggravated robbery and drug charges. There, he said, he devoted much of his attention to prison ministries aimed at helping gang members, and he made a personal vow to improve his own tumultuous life.

When asked about Hefner, Smith smiled. In her experience, she said, there are very few people like the man she helped get into college three years ago.

%93He has work ethic above and beyond reproach. He is conscientious. He%92s hard working. He%92s a dedicated young man and I have nothing but good things to say about him. I think he%92s a wonderful person, and he%92s definitely deserving of this honor,%94 said Smith, who nominated him for the honor.

One of the biggest lessons he has learned over the years, he said, is that %93you need people.%94 Hefner stressed that students must take advantage of the networking and internship opportunities that NABJ offers.

%93I don%92t care how good%94 you are %93or how much you think you can do something on your own, it%92s nothing like knowing somebody who might know somebody, and NABJ provides that,%94 Hefner said.

Alexander Ford graduated in May from Hampton University.

Posted Aug. 5, 2005