Boots, ballads and Bulldog pride: Jameelah Smith-Pressley’s SC State remix

SCSUNAA names NYC 911 operator its 2025 Young Alumna of the Year

ORANGEBURG, S.C.— Jameelah Smith-Pressley was impossible to miss at South Carolina State University.

One day, she was belting out a song in the Concert Choir. The next day, she was strutting across the stage in a pageant sash. Then suddenly, she’d be sprinting across campus in a business suit, juggling steel-toed boots for a soil mechanics lab.

“I would dress up, but then I would have to run from the business department from Belcher Hall to go to my engineering classes,” she said. “I would be carrying boots and wearing a suit to put on my boots to do a soil mechanics class when we were doing outside work.”

Smith-Pressley, SC State Class of 2005, started in computer science before ditching code for concrete. Civil engineering technology stuck, but she never let her major box her in.

She was in pageants. She was on the Student Union Board. She ran for freshman class president. She traveled with the pep squad. And she performed in campus plays to round things out. People assumed she was majoring in the fine arts.

“Many people didn’t realize I was a STEM major because I had a scholarship to the concert choir, and I was also in the theater a lot,” she said.

Smith-Pressley is a fifth-generation Bulldog, tracing her SC State line back to her great-great-grandfather, Alexander Cooper. Her mother graduated in 1977. Her aunts and cousins are alumni, as well.

Now, she’s not just part of the dynasty. She’s adding her own remix: one part engineer, one part vocalist, one part actor, one part teacher, one part counselor, one part communicator, one part alumna firebrand, and all Bulldog.

Her family thought they’d had fun in Orangeburg, but they admitted Smith-Pressley outdid them all.

“My mother and my aunts and cousins, they were like, ‘We thought we had big fun at South Carolina State,’ but they said I took the cake by participating in so many things,” Smith-Pressley said. “I just wanted to make sure I had a full experience, and I didn't want to miss anything.

“That also helped me get other scholarship money -- more than just my original scholarship with the concert choir, and it introduced me to things I never even thought about,” she said.

A résumé with plot twists

Graduation didn’t slow her down. Smith-Pressley taught in New York schools, ran a domestic violence shelter system and now takes 911 calls as a police communications technician with the NYPD.

“I’m a police communications technician, so I deal with different energies throughout New York City,” she said. “I’m talking with people on a regular basis.”

Civil engineering might not be on her business card, but she swears SC State gave her everything she needed.

“My tutelage at South Carolina State and just leadership qualities that I learned in the professional development helped me to be a chameleon in the different areas and helped me to survive,” she said. “Sometimes when you graduate, you're not necessarily going to go into your field.

“It's lovely if you do, but sometimes you don't have those opportunities, and you still need to be able to survive as an adult,” Smith-Pressley said. “You learn skills at South Carolina State to help you move forward and help you to adapt.”

Bulldogs, don’t just write checks

Smith-Pressley got her alumni start before she even graduated, back when the pre-alumni council was still called the student-alumni relations organization. She later served as a chapter president and still isn’t shy about telling her fellow Bulldogs to get involved.

For Smith-Pressley, being a loyal daughter of SC State isn’t about zip codes or titles. It’s about connection. Whether you live in Orangeburg, New York or anywhere in between, she said, showing up for the university matters. Alumni who stay engaged keep the Bulldog spirit alive, ensuring the next generation has the same foundation to thrive.

That call for loyalty — to give time, energy, and presence, not just dollars — is exactly why the South Carolina State University National Alumni Association spotlighted her in Charlotte, recognizing her with its 2025 Young Alumna of the Year award. For Smith-Pressley, the honor was less about a trophy and more about proof that her brand of all-in Bulldog spirit matters.

Her message to other young alumni?

“Not only pay your money but participate,” she said. “We need your energy. We need your ideas.

“So come participate, join the alumni association, join as a life member and continue to give your contributions because South Carolina State is our foundation and has helped us to get to where we are in our successful positions,” Smith-Pressley said.

For more information about the South Carolina State University National Alumni Association, visit www.scsunaa.org .