Durham native Ayesha Rascoe sets her own tone as NPR host

Ayesha Rascoe was once a shy student at Southern High School in Durham.

Despite now being known as the Southern School of Energy and Sustainability, Rascoe said the school still looks very much the same.

“It’s a big, full-circle moment,” she said, after walking through the hallways for the first time in years. “It looks kind of familiar. But pulling up and seeing the red and the overhang, I’m like, ‘yeah, I’m back!’”

The class of 2003 alumna was once the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. She says she discovered her love for journalism then but didn’t even know her own potential. As a student, she said she spent a lot of time in the library. That was the same place she sat down with WRAL’s Destinee Patterson to talk about her journey from Durham to Washington, D.C.

“If little Ayesha back then saw me, she would be shocked, but I hope she would be really happy. I think she would be really proud,” Rascoe said, getting choked up. “It’s hard because, being shy, I think there’s a lot of self-doubt …I think what I would say to myself back then is that you’re capable of much more than you realize.”

Rascoe went on to be a White House Correspondent, covering three presidential administrations. She is currently the NPR host for “Weekend Edition Sunday” and the Saturday episodes of “Up First.” While she’s gained respect over her years as in the field, she has also faced criticism for her southern flare. Nonetheless, she tells WRAL News that she will not waver when it comes to being true to herself.

“When someone says you’re not professional or you’re lazy and you know the work you’re putting in, it can feel hurtful,” Rascoe said. “At this point, I’m confident in my delivery. You know what I’m saying, even if I have an accent, even if my vowels are a little different.”

Rascoe said her experience at Howard University, a historically Black university, has prepared her for the both the successes and challenges of her career.

“It helped equip me to know the context of why these things happen, that it’s really not about me, personally,” she said. “It’s about, they’re not used to hearing someone who sounds like me, who looks like me in my position.”

Lessons and experiences like that assemble inside her book “HBCU Made: A Celebration of the Black College Experience.” It’s a collection of essays penned by well-known and up-and-coming HBCU alumni, including Oprah Winfrey and Stacey Abrams.

“Never before had HBCU graduates, in their own words, told their own stories about why going to an HBCU mattered,” Rascoe said, when asked about the importance of the book.

Her book tour just wrapped up on Tuesday in Chapel Hill after making several stops across the country.

“I hope that with my work, and through the grace of God, that I can expand people’s expectations, so it’s not a surprise when you hear me,” she said. “That this becomes, hopefully, for some child growing up, ‘oh, this is what the news sounds like.’”