Senior mass communication major Tiffany Bailey will be graduating this fall, and is currently at the top of her game, producing on-campus shows such as Eye of the Tiger and Tiger Talk with President Dr. Willie D Larkin.
Her story is not a fairy tale, but one of perseverance. The 38-year-old mother of four proves that one never knows what a person can truly accomplish.
Bailey was born and raised in Long Island, New York. At the age of 5 she was taken from her mother and placed in foster care.
Doctors said she had Attention Deficit Disorder. “I could never keep still, I had so much energy.” Bailey said. Her mother regained custody of her and her siblings when Bailey turned 13 and decided to move the family to Virginia.
Bailey stated that after moving to Virginia, she began to get in a lot of trouble. She became very rebellious, and was in and out of the juvenile detention center till she was 17.
“My drive for anything was gone,” Bailey stated.
With no motivation, she dropped out of high school in the ninth grade. “I did not want to do anything that was right.”
She had a moment of change after she found out she was pregnant with her first daughter, Keyonna. Her life started to change after attending church with a childhood friend. It was at that point she had a spiritual awakening.
By age 19 she had two children and decided she wanted a fresh start and moved her family to North Carolina.
In 2001, she began working as a bartender. It was then she met and fell in love her husband DeMario. They were married a year later. They later had two more children, and Bailey became a stay-at-home mom.
“Everybody would be at school, and I would be at home twiddling my thumbs”
She wanted more.
She decided to enroll in GED classes. It was a rough start at first. She went through three instructors. It wasn’t until she met instructor Latonya Carter that she took school seriously.
“She kicked me out of class, and told me don’t come back till I get my mind right.”
It took two days and she decided to go back. It was that tough love that gave her the push she needed to pass. In 2011, she passed the GED exam on the first try.
She enrolled in classes at Grambling in the summer.
“No one would have ever thought that I would be in college,” Bailey said.
Not only did she enroll in college, but she maintained a 3.0 or higher grade-point average for three years.
Her oldest daughter, now 19, kept the new tradition going and also enrolled at Grambling and is a part of the World Famed Tiger Marching Band.
“It’s more weird for her than it is for me,” Bailey said. Students usually assume that her daughter is just one of her students, until they find out otherwise.
Bailey’s other children are sons Jordan, 17, and DeMario Jr., 13; and daughter Arieonna, 12.
While working in the GSU TV Center, Bailey has done work for ESPN and just recently got to travel to the Bayou Classic in New Orleans, where she got to interview several celebrities.
“Tiffany is one of the best producers I have ever come across in the TV Center,” said TV Center director Alan Blakeney.
Bailey was not originally a mass communication major, but took the single camera video class once and fell in love.
Bailey says her love for Grambling is undeniable, because she knows she would not have made it this far if she had not attended this school.
She credits her teachers for being understanding, and her mother’s prayers for her current success.
In five years she sees herself working her dream job at CNN.
Bailey believes that with God and hard work, she will achieve all her goals.