JTC 2024: Diving Deep on Double Majors

Violet Jira found a love for writing in high school when she worked as the opinion editor for her school's student newspaper. After changing her major a few times during her freshman year, the Cleveland native found her passion for critical thinking and reporting when she landed on journalism and later added philosophy her junior year.

"The journalism school does a really good job of putting you through a number of classes that show you all of the aspects of journalism," Jira said. "Of course, there are classes on how to write a news story and other basics, but there are also classes on things like social media.

"I took a class on video storytelling that I really enjoyed; it was nice to have that experience in the classroom."

At the end of her freshman year, Jira also got involved with the Daily Mississippian, the university's student newspaper. After serving as editor-in-chief for 2023-24, she credits both the School of Journalism and New Media and her involvement with the newspaper as two of the most influential parts of her time at the University of Mississippi.

"I applied to be the opinion editor, but they put me on the news desk, and I probably wouldn't be in as deep with the DM as I am now if that had not happened," she said. "Writing for the Daily Mississippian, learning how to write a news story and covering tough topics has been invaluable for me.

"It's really helpful to know that going into everything moving forward knowing I can do the tasks I'll need to do."

During her time at the Daily Mississippian, Jira found a mentor in Dennis Moore, the DM's editorial director, and relied on his guidance for her journalism career. Moore speaks just as highly of his time working with Jira.

"One of the greatest compliments I can give Violet is this: She is a natural journalist," Moore said. "Violet is curious, resourceful and respectful of others but not reluctant to challenge them.

"She is passionate about social justice but careful to represent differing opinions on controversial subjects. Violet is also a skillful and engaging writer who takes often surprising and always satisfying approaches to storytelling."

Jira also completed an internship with The Commercial Dispatch in Columbus during the summer of 2022. During her time there, Jira experienced what is her proudest journalism moment when she received a tip that the police had saved a drowning man over the holiday.

"I obviously thought this would be a really interesting story so I went to pursue it," she said. "I was doing all of the research for it, and I had everything except for the man himself. Eventually I found his information and it turned out that he was a paraplegic who had been swimming and started to drown.

"I really dug deep on this story, and I think that is what helped me to get the story that I got. It would not have been such a good story if I had not taken all of the steps to really find this man and get all of the information."

Along with her dedication to journalism, Jira is also an involved philosophy major, a study that she says is "humbling" for her.

"It's the first time in my life that I really struggled to get a grip on something," Jira said, who was the captain of the Ethics Bowl team her senior year. "It forces me to learn and think in ways that I have never had to before.

"You are given a problem and then you have to tease through the moral and ethical implications of the solution you are presenting."

Jira's involvement on the Ethics Bowl team was something unexpected in her undergraduate career, but it made a huge difference for her.

"It really helped me grow into the philosophy major because I had this activity that accompanied what I was doing in the classroom."

Jira says that both her majors go hand-in-hand and that studying philosophy made a positive impact on the way she pursues journalism.

"The skills are really transferable," she said. "I feel like a lot of people don't realize that philosophy is a lot of reading but it's also a lot of logic and training yourself to think in a certain way to solve problems.

"It's been incredibly helpful, not just in journalism but in a lot of aspects of my life."

Jira is a Fulbright Young Professional Journalist Program awardee for a program in Germany and is contemplating whether to pursue that or a journalism fellowship post-graduation.

"I would love the opportunity to work for a newsroom and I am really just hoping to give what talents I have towards doing good journalism," she said.

One of the most important and rewarding parts of Jira's time at Ole Miss was the opportunity to take Swahili classes.

"It was really cool to study with native Swahili speakers and learn the language," she said. "My parents are immigrants from Kenya, where Swahili is their national language.

"Since I was born in America, I don't have the capability to communicate as well with my family here and back in Kenya, so being able to take Swahili classes here has been so valuable to me. It's definitely one of the reasons I came to Ole Miss."

Moore said he is confident that Jira will make significant contributions to both journalism and the university.

"My respect for Violet's talent has not wavered over the years, but my appreciation for her as a person has grown immensely," he said. "She is one of the best student journalists I have worked with and one of the finest people I have known at the university.

"I have no doubt that in the coming years she will be counted among our school's most respected alumni."

See more photos from Violet Jira's Journey to Commencement