Graduate Spotlight: Spring 2026 Valedictorian Jaelynne Williams

Spring 2026 valedictorian Jaelynne Williams grew up in Atlanta but calls Dallas home. She says choosing to attend Texas Southern University was an easy decision.

“I was very familiar with Houston as a city. I knew I didn’t want to leave Texas, and I knew I definitely wanted to be in an HBCU environment. So, I feel like TSU was just a no brainer when you put all those factors together.

She came to Texas Southern with plans to major in engineering. On the one hand, she loved math. On the other hand, she didn’t love science.

“Then, I kept hearing about accounting just through the grapevine. I took a class, and I ended up really liking it and enjoying it. I just stuck with it from there.”

Jaelynne says she was surprised to hear she’d earned valedictorian.

“I have a 4.0, so I was thinking it was a possibility. I definitely just needed to finish strong. I do, probably as you could imagine, put a lot of effort into my education. I have grown up always knowing education was something that was important and something to take seriously. I love TSU as a school, but in college, in general, it can be easy to sway into different things and let education fall to the wayside. I’ve always been super intentional to not do that, and always to put my studies first.”

She says Texas Southern taught her resilience.

“It taught me the ability to overcome and stay strong. College isn’t easy for everyone, and I think sometimes it takes getting through things to know you are able to get through things.”

It also taught her that diversity exists, even in predominantly and historically Black environments.

“There are so many different people. I think people assume you go to an HBCU, it’s primarily Black and everybody is the same. But no. I’ve gotten here and met people. People come here from all over the country. We have so many international students. People who have completely different perspectives and different backgrounds than I do. I just meet people all the time that come from different paths, and that really allows me to grow as a person by interacting with other people, but also learning from them.”

She graduates with an internship at KPMG in the tax division. In the fall, she’ll begin her master’s in Accounting at the University of Houston. She will attend on a full scholarship.

To future Tigers, she says stay focused.

“It’s easy to let your academics fall to the wayside when there’s so much to do. Don’t get me wrong. Texas Southern is a beautiful school and you have to take in the social scene and the camaraderie being at a school like this. But make sure you put your studies first, you’re serious about getting your degree because knowledge is power. You don’t want anything frivolous to take that away from you.”

Hear Jaelynne’s story in her own words here.