A New York Times journalist got her start at Conn’s student newspaper

“Gifted writer.” “Innovative editor.” “Avid observer of local news and politics.”

That’s how The New York Times Magazine Editor-in-Chief Jake Silverstein and The New York Times Metro Editor Clifford J. Levy described Jazmine Hughes ’12 when they announced in 2020 that she would write full-time as a metro reporter for the paper and a staff writer for the magazine, where she had served as a staff editor since 2015.

“Who can forget her puckish profile of Judge Judy, whose ‘eyebrows do a cartoonish slant from left to right, like an emoji meant to signal anger.’ Or her wonderful first-person essay on learning to swim. She’s also written many pieces for Arts, Books and Styles,” they wrote.

A 2020 ASME Next Award winner and 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Hughes is now covering New York City—at one of the most tumultuous times in its history—for America’s “newspaper of record.”

It’s an impressive career that began at Conn—specifically, in Cro 215, headquarters of Conn’s student newspaper, The College Voice.

“I started writing for the Voice my freshman year. When the editor-in-chief pitched the articles [my first] week, I was too nervous to volunteer, so I pulled a random editor aside and asked if I could write an article about relationships, something I knew nothing about,” Hughes recalled.

“A week later, I had a byline, an 800-word article praising the power of open lines of communication, and a newfound love for The College Voice.”

Hughes worked her way up to news editor, and then, as a senior, editor-in-chief. In her last editorial column for the Voice, Hughes reminisced on the importance of the co-curricular experience.

“I have grown up in Cro 215, a nurturing, productive, encouraging environment,” she wrote.

“The past four years have been real: an examination of what we like, an inquiry in what we are capable of, a constant investigation in what comes next.”