Getting to know Graham Hooten over these past few months has been an absolute pleasure, and honestly, I am in awe of his work ethic and ability to maintain his calm, cool, and collected façade under times of stress. Davidson College is a campus filled with incredible, busy, and involved students. Graham Hooten, class of 2020, is no exception to this. He is not only a member of many clubs and organizations, but he runs two online publications and still finds time to maintain his faith and a balanced social life. Read on to learn more about Graham!
Name: Dwight Graham Hooten (he goes by Graham, though)
Hometown: Hinsdale, Illinois
Class: 2020
Major: More than likely, English
Campus activities: Editor-in-chief of the Odyssey Online, RUF (Reformed University Fellowship), Young Life–First Year Rush, weekly Thursday night worship, co-writer for A-10Talk.com.
Favorite song(s):
Current favorite song: “Fear” (by Ben Rector)
All time favorite songs: “Where the Streets Have No Name” (By U2), “Love Story” (By Taylor Swift), “Celebration” (By Kool & the Gang)
Favorite sports team: Chicago Cubs (#FlytheW)
Celebrity crush: Taylor Swift
Favorite animal: Pomeranian Husky
Fun fact:  Graham has “played guitar for one of the finalists on The Voice” and “performed Tae Kwon Do at a Chicago Bulls NBA game.”
Dream job: President of a non-profit (like Unicef)
Spirit animal: Owl (get it, cuz HOOTen)
Least favorite thing about Davidson: “Late night is not open late enough”
Special talent: Impersonating his relatives and hall mates, work avoidance, recruiting friends to cardio dance
Favorite thing about Davidson: “Knowing and loving everybody (or the majority of people) who go here”
Graham, the Odyssey Online, and A-10 Talk:
The Odyssey Online is, according to their website, “the social media platform that democratizes how news and other content is created and consumed, enriching people’s lives with new, honest, meaningful ideas and enabling businesses to build relationships with more engaged audiences.” It is based out of New York City but is on hundreds of college campuses throughout the country, including Davidson. Graham is the editor-in-chief of Davidson’s Odyssey and he is in charge of recruiting and building a team, managing and editing work, and putting out weekly content. His favorite part about writing for the Odyssey is “being able to write about topics in a level and meaningful way,” and while it can be hard to balance “grace and accountability” with his team, he enjoys being there for them and pushing them to be better writers. Graham’s proudest piece of writing for the Odyssey is entitled “To Drink or Not to Drink.” (I highly recommend reading it!) Graham spent a lot of time working on the very personal piece and was excited that other people besides himself got a lot out of it.
Along with being a writer for the Odyssey Online, Graham is a co-writer for A-10 Talk–a blog about all things Atlantic 10 Basketball. He and his friend, Grant Labedz (’20), merged their Atlantic 10 Basketball blog with A-10 Talk in January of this year. The website serves as a one-stop shop for dedicated basketball fans. For this publication, Graham is mostly a writer and gets to write features on different topics including NCAA bracketology and player profiles (like one he wrote for his roommate, Jon Axel (’20)). Graham loves being able to cover games in person, talk to players and coaches, “experience college basketball through lenses of media,” and, of course, share it all on Twitter. The most difficult part about A-10 Talk is “the haters,” but Graham doesn’t let the haters stop him from doing all the things he loves!
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