Howard University graduating senior Zoe Cummings has already hit the ground running as an emerging journalist and storyteller, landing bylines in publications such as Forbes and The Washington Post well before she’s wrapped up her time as an undergraduate student. This caliber of Bison excellence is a legacy she was born into.

Cummings, a Cincinnati, Ohio native, comes from a long family tradition of Howard graduates — she’s a fifth-generation Bison, her familial roots beginning at the university with her great-great-great-grandfather, Roland Bradley I, who was an accounting student in the early 20th century. Her grandmother, Dr. Joan C. Payne (B.A. ’68), taught at the university for more than four decades in the School of Communications and authored several books and articles on sickle cell disease, traumatic brain injury, cultural competence, caregiving, and cultural aspects of neurogenic language disorders. Cummings father, Theodore “Ted” Payne Cummings (B.S. ’93), was an engineering student who became a lawyer and an author. 

With her family’s legacy on her shoulders, Cummings is carving out her own path as a journalism student in the Cathy Hughes School of Communications. The decision to attend Howard, Cummings shared, was uniquely her own. 

“Howard really did feel like the right place for me,” she said. “When I got here, I was very diligent and intentional about making it my own experience. I didn’t just want to be Joan’s granddaughter or Ted’s daughter — I wanted to be Zoe, and I wanted to carve out my own place and my own experience here. I didn’t just come here and rest on the legacy of my family — I increased it. I told our story and I made my own path.”

A Journalist is Born

Cummings enrolled at Howard with her sights set on expanding her interest in journalism. Her passion for writing took shape in high school during her time as a slam poet. That experience gave her insight into the tangible power of language. 

“That was the first time that I realized that not only did I have a voice, but that other people cared about it,” said Cummings. “I could make people feel something with the power of my words. The power of a story has always been ingrained in who I am.”

During her first year at Howard, Cummings sharpened her skills in storytelling as a student in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ creative non-fiction class and Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 1619 Project class. 

“[They] were the reasons why I came to Howard,” Cummings said, referring back to the moment she learned of Coates and Hannah-Jones’ faculty appointments at the university. “They taught me most uniquely how to write a story that haunts other people, how to write a story that makes others care, and why we do it. They impressed upon me very early that journalism was a calling and that it costs you something. It’s a service to others. It’s necessary for us as Black people to do it and be in that room.”

Cummings start in getting her work published began with her first byline in Howard’s student-led publication “COVER2COVER.” The story explored dating and romantic relationships on Howard’s campus, with a deeper look inside secret casual dating encounters often referred to as “sneaky links.”

“Not only was it my first byline, but it was also my first time seeing my name in print because we printed the magazine,” she said. “That was my first experience delving into the psychology and culture of a taboo, but super fun topic.”

Cummings adds that it’s a full circle moment of going from writing her first story with “COVER2COVER” to becoming the publication’s editor-in-chief, a position she’s assumed for two years. During her tenure as editor-in-chief, Cummings led a team of more than 40 writers covering aspects of student life on Howard’s campus in addition to lifestyle, culture, sports, and government news. 

“Our motto is creatively encapsulating life at Howard University,” she noted. “We do it differently than everybody else. While I’ve been the editor-in-chief, we put out four magazines. At COVER2COVER, we want to be the publication that’s most reflective of what students are talking about. We want students to look into the magazine and be able to see real conversations, real situations, and real problems they’re having. [This position] taught me how to be a leader, how to listen to others, and how to make space for others’ ideas because while I might be at the helm of the ship, I’m barely steering it alone.”

From The Yard to the Newsroom

Cummings refined her reporting skills when she worked in her first newsroom as an intern at Fox 5 DC in 2024, an experience she credits as the foundational roots of her knowledge in news storytelling. The opportunity also informed her decision to pivot from broadcast journalism to print. In 2025, Cummings joined Forbes Media as a Forbes HBCU Scholar intern. She shared that the internship experience was “my favorite internship I’ve ever done,” and gave her first-hand experience in business journalism. 

“I was thrown into the deep end,” Cummings recalled. “I had to learn things about stocks and bonds. It was an interesting experience. It taught me how to be entrepreneurial, how to think quickly on my feet, and how to do my research while learning outside of the context of a classroom.”

Cummings was then selected to be a Washington Post 2025 Academic Year Fellow where she worked alongside journalists in the Post’s audio department during the fall 2025 semester. 

“I was able to produce some episodes I really cared about, one of which landed on the front page of the Post’s Sunday paper, which was a really cool moment,” she said. “All of that work experience has overall shown me that you have to fight for the stories that you want. You have to fight to be in the room that you’re in and getting in the room really isn’t enough. What are we going to bring with us? What are we going to say that’s different? All of that has been very foundational to my work experience and what I hope to do in the future.”

In April, Cummings joined a panel of esteemed journalists for Howard’s “Reporting While Black” event, a moment she said was a source of pride and another “full circle and culminating moment of my time in journalism. That moment forced me to slow down and really think about what I’ve gotten to do up until this point and who I’ve become while doing it.”

Upon graduating in May, Cummings will return to the Washington Post this summer as a features reporter intern. 

Finding Community at Howard

Beyond her journalism pursuits, Cummings also reflected on the communities she’s been a part at Howard. She fondly looked back on her experience of becoming a member of the Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., saying that “sisterhood has always been something that I valued, but I didn’t grow up having. I credit my line sisters with so much of who I am.”

She also made note of her time with the university’s Chorale singing group where she sang alongside peers at campus and community events: “It was my first family and the first place that I felt seen, known, and loved.”

Cummings added that she’s grateful to her Howard network of supportive peers and instructors. She credits the influential leadership of School of Communications faculty members for being instrumental to her academic and professional successes. She emphasized the significance of learning under faculty members such as Dr. Stacey Patton, Dominic McKenzie, Dr. Yanick Rice Lamb, and Dr. Christine McWhorter, all of whom recommended her for professional opportunities and motivated her with their words of encouragement. 

“All four of them have been integral to my journey at Howard — I would not be where I am without them.”

As Cummings looked back on her time as a Bison, she emphasized that 2026 graduates should hold onto the lessons they’ve learned at Howard as they venture out beyond The Yard. 

“I would encourage everybody to step out on faith — faith in themselves, faith in provision, and faith in their ability to go and be something great,” said Cummings. “We’re about to journey into the world and the world is hard, but what we have here at Howard has prepared us very uniquely for that type of hard. We can’t forget everything that Howard has given us and why.”