Watching her dazed parents stare at the images of the devastation in their native country flashing across the television, Kendra Desrosiers said she truly felt the pains of the major earthquake in Haiti.

Born in Boston almost 22 years ago, Desrosiers said she gained immense pride for Haiti because of the elaborate Haitian wooden sculptures and colorful artwork that filled her family’s home. She was shocked by the destruction the quake caused, but was proud of how the people handled the situation.

“We Haitians have a really strong sense of pride in our country,” she said. “My brother and I both have a Haitian flag hanging on our dorm room walls.”

Desrosiers recently graduated from Howard University with a bachelor’s in journalism, and says her Haitian heritage gave her motivation as well.

“I think that culturally Haitians put work ethic at the top of the list,” Desrosiers said. “It is culturally embedded for us to work harder.”

Desrosiers possesses that same motivation. She started interning just after high school and had completed 12 internships by the time she finished college.

She started a food pantry for the Domestic Violence Agency Casa Myrna Vasquez, wrote with Skope magazine and was an on-campus correspondent for CNN.

“There are things that I found that my classes did not have that my internships provided,” she said. “Going out in the field and learning the actual profession was a major benefit.”

While at Howard, Desrosiers, a music lover, created her own online magazine, 25 Magazine, for arts, entertainment and culture with the goal of finding “urban culture for the rest of us.”

She says the magazine doesn’t cover everything in the top 40 and mainstream media.

“We are more sophisticated,” she said. “It’s about keeping your ears to the street and relying on blogs and knowing what is going on in the industries.”

Now Desrosiers has her sights on New York City, maybe working for a newspaper or magazine in its arts, style or culture section. She recognizes that it is tough industry, so she won’t object to doing something else in journalism.

With her Haitian confidence and motivation, Desrosiers is ready for whatever comes next.

An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Skope magazine.

– Rodney W. Hawkins II

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