Coppin State student government leader Karis Joyner tells Nestor about her Northeast Baltimore roots and West Baltimore path to education and a degree. A little political science, some non-profit leadership and a pre-law track. Let her tell you about being young and ready to tackle the modern world.
Karis Joyner, a senior at Coppin State University and the Student Government Association (SGA) president, discussed her educational journey and involvement in student government. Born and raised in northeast Baltimore, Joyner attended Baltimore City College and received a Presidential Scholarship at Coppin, which covered her tuition. She majors in political science with a minor in nonprofit leadership and is on a pre-law track. Joyner emphasized her role in SGA, focusing on student engagement, safety, and addressing student concerns. She also highlighted her civic engagement project aimed at educating students on media literacy and political navigation. Joyner plans to attend law school at the University of Baltimore.
Introduction and Background of Karis Joyner
- Nestor Aparicio introduces the show and mentions various topics, including the Ravens, Coppin State basketball, and the upcoming holiday season.
- Nestor introduces Karis Joyner, a Coppin State student and Baltimore native, and discusses her involvement in student government.
- Karis shares her background, mentioning she was born and raised in northeast Baltimore and attended Baltimore City College.
- Nestor and Karis discuss their connections to various Baltimore institutions, including Coco’s Pub and Morgan State University.
Educational Journey and Scholarship
- Karis talks about her family’s emphasis on education and her own journey to receiving a Presidential Scholarship at Coppin State.
- Nestor and Karis discuss the importance of education and the impact of receiving a full ride scholarship.
- Karis explains how her father’s advice to “go where the money is” influenced her decision to attend Coppin State.
- Karis shares her initial shock and gratitude upon receiving the scholarship and how it solidified her decision to attend Coppin.
Choosing Coppin State
- Karis elaborates on her decision to attend Coppin State, highlighting the support and connections she made with professors and peers.
- Nestor and Karis discuss the familial and supportive environment at Coppin State, including the presence of alumni who are teachers.
- Karis mentions her limited prior experience with Coppin State, having attended a four-square tournament in elementary school.
- Nestor and Karis discuss the reputation of Coppin State and its role as an incubator for education in Baltimore.
Academic and Extracurricular Involvement
- Karis shares her major in political science and her minor in nonprofit leadership, as well as her pre-law track.
- Nestor and Karis discuss the impact of current political events on the study of political science and the importance of open discourse.
- Karis talks about her civic engagement project aimed at educating students on how to engage with politics and navigate media literacy.
- Nestor and Karis discuss the challenges of media literacy in the modern world and the importance of using technology ethically.
Student Government Leadership
- Karis explains her involvement in student government since her freshman year, starting as freshman class secretary and progressing to her current role as president.
- Nestor and Karis discuss the responsibilities of student government, including ensuring students feel heard and supported.
- Karis highlights the importance of maintaining level heads and having a good support system in student government.
- Karis shares her network and connections at Coppin State, which she uses to help students with various issues.
Future Plans and Final Thoughts
- Karis discusses her plans to attend law school, with a preference for the University of Baltimore.
- Nestor and Karis talk about the importance of education and the ongoing journey of learning, even for those who have graduated.
- Karis shares her love for the environment and family aspect at Coppin State, emphasizing the safe and supportive campus environment.
- Nestor concludes the interview by expressing his admiration for Karis and her generation, and they discuss future plans for a crab cake at Coco’s Pub.
Coppin State student governmen…path to education and a degree
Wed, Nov 19, 2025 6:44PM • 23:12
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Coppin State, Student Government, Karis Joyner, Baltimore roots, Presidential Scholarship, Political Science, Nonprofit Leadership, Civic Engagement, Media Literacy, AI Ethics, Campus Environment, Safety, Law School, University of Baltimore, Education.
SPEAKERS
Karis Joyner, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive, positively getting into Thanksgiving and the holiday season and all the good stuff going on. Luke is out knowing his Mills make sure the ravens are keeping it square here with a couple of games this week. And of course, Coppin State back out on the floor in basketball. I saw Coach Stewart about two weeks ago out at the Beaumont. We’ve had him on, and we love talking about Coppin, talking about all the good things going on. We had a lot of professors on. Dr Jenkins is going to be coming back on before, before Christmas. And, you know, I said I got to get some more students on. And I actually went to a gala back in the spring, and I met a lot of students and and the Coppin alumni group. They throw the best parties. They have the most fun and all that stuff. And this young lady here is going to be a cop and alum sometime soon, Paris schner joins us here. She is a Baltimore area but more than that. And you know, I almost ran for mayor about six years ago, so, you know, I do politics around here. And obviously some things are better than others in the Epstein and all this stuff going on in Washington, but Student Government is a different thing. I was the Sergeant at Arms in my sophomore year of high school. It really wasn’t a role. I mean, I the pictures in the yearbook, so, but I know that the class president had a lot of work to do. Yeah? So Student Government, welcome in, and you are a Baltimore girl. You come at dishonest.
Karis Joyner 01:23
8I am born and raised on northeast Baltimore, went to Baltimore City College, go stay forever. So, yeah, you’re not one
Nestor Aparicio 01:33
of those people that I’m like, hey, I’ll take you, and you’ll take me and show me where good crab cake is. I don’t need to
Karis Joyner 01:38
take you for sure. You know, we can go to Coco’s pub.
Nestor Aparicio 01:41
I was just texting with Marcella because I’m doing the show there. Coco’s is one of my sponsors. She’s gonna love to hear that, even though her she’s by Morgan. Don’t tell anybody that you know that, right? Being a northeast Baltimore girl, you you have friends at Morgan, right? You
8Karis Joyner 01:58
do? I do. So actually, my my mom is at Morgan getting her PhD. My little brother, he is getting, he is a sophomore now. Oh my goodness, that’s crazy. He’s a sophomore studying mechatronics. And then my older brother, he’s actually finishing Morgan today. Oh, wow. Like today’s his last class at Morgan, and he’s getting his Bachelor’s in mechatronics as well.
Nestor Aparicio 02:23
Well, look, I’m not here to promote Morgan, even though it’s right by Coco’s. And I know we have the whole HBCU and the whole but, but you think you got the superior education at Copper,
Karis Joyner 02:32
right? Oh, for sure. And I got it for free. So I’m good for that. I’m good for that. I will forever be so grateful for Coppin and President Jenkins for giving me the Presidential Scholarship, which allowed me to go to Coppin on a full ride.
Nestor Aparicio 02:47
8How did you do that? Give me your journey? I mean, clearly you have a mom trying to get a PhD, so you already offered that education is was important to you,
Karis Joyner 02:55
right? It was very much instilled in my life from a very young age. I come from a family of educators, so education was very much forefront in my life for ever. And so, yeah, I was I? How did I get the scholarship? Honestly, I was shocked when I received the scholarship in high school, and I was like, you guys want me to do this? Like, this is like, I deserve, like, I got this ultimate
Nestor Aparicio 03:20
isn’t it? When you’re a young person, there’s nothing you know, getting your parents off the hook and having to pay and your grades are good, and you’ve been a good citizen and and someone wants you. And, yeah, it’s like winning the lottery, right? Yeah,
Karis Joyner 03:33
for sure. It was. It was an amazing blessing from me and my family, for
8Nestor Aparicio 03:37
sure. Okay, so why cop and give me the whole because you’re about to end this thing, right? You’re four years into this. Maybe you go graduate, you know, I don’t know, he sounds like you got a little lineage of that in your family. But why Coppin? And give me the journey through all of it, because I love talking to students, but then we’ll get
Karis Joyner 03:52
into the government thing. Yeah, sure. So why Coppin? It’s kind of like what I just alluded to earlier, the scholarship. My father is a college advisor. So he helps students. That’s his day job. He helps students get into college. So the one thing that he always told me was, go where the money is go. Where the money is go. The money is education is the same, pretty much across the board, but just go where the money is. So I went with Coppin because of the full ride, and then when I got to invest and like, really see what Coppin was about, getting to know the professors in the department prior to even coming to Coppin was amazing. So I really enjoyed that, and it just kind of really made me solidify my decision. I also knew a couple of people from my high school who attended Coppin, and so it kind of made me feel a little bit more comfortable and joining like, more like a family aspect, rather than just like jumping into school and just like it’s I always
Nestor Aparicio 04:56
felt like some of these campuses are so big, and when I’m at coffin, it feels like they’re. Is a familial feeling, not just among the students, but even when I go to alumni events. I mean, there’s so many, and I don’t I talk about this, all that people think of Coppin as a teacher school, you know, or at least historically, when you get to be my Exactly. And I go to these events, and I see all of these teachers. These are, these are alumni who have taught you and taught the mayor and taught you. Know, City Schools forever. Coppin has always been really an incubator for education in that way for Baltimore. So for a young girl like you over northeast Baltimore, closer to Morgan, you had college dreams. You’re in a college track family. Did you visit Coppin before or no. I mean, what were your other options? And I would just say, because Coppins tucked along in a part of the city that don’t traverse unless they go there. And I go all the time and see basketball across from the diamond, and the reputation of Baltimore precedes itself outside the community. But you’re a local girl, you know? What’s up? I mean, I am. I just always when I hear people going to Coppin, I think of all these experiences of I’ve had, and I think of teachers, and I think of what good things people have done when they’ve gotten their degree at Coppin.
Karis Joyner 06:15
8Yeah, for sure. So to answer your question, like, have I been to Coppin? Or, like, heard of Coppin before even going? I had to come to you. Yeah, yeah, right. So I had one experience with Coppin prior to going to Coppin, and I think I might have been, like, in the third or fourth grade, and this is back when Baltimore City Public Schools and Playworks was a thing. I don’t know. Like, that’s such a throwback. So if you know, you know, if you don’t, I’m so sorry back
Nestor Aparicio 06:42
for old people like me. It was like 12 years ago, but that’s okay. It’s all perspective, Karis, how
Karis Joyner 06:48
you see it, it’s how you see it, right? And but I went for a four square tournament, actually, so I that’s the only connection that I had to cop in
Nestor Aparicio 06:59
prior but you had been there and you’re like, Okay, I
8Karis Joyner 07:04
was in, like, the PEC but the Physical Education Complex before it got, like, renovated, renovated, right?
Nestor Aparicio 07:10
Well, and it’s renovated, renovated. HARRIS joiners, here she is the student government president at Coppin State and a senior and a Baltimore girl and a city college graduate. And so what is your major? And run me through these last couple years of Coppin, because you’re, you’re clearly excited about it and and ran and won, right? Yeah, vote for charis, like, Vote for Pedro, right?
Karis Joyner 07:31
Exactly, exactly. So I’m studying political science, that’s my major, and I’m minoring in nonprofit leadership, and I’m on the pre law track, so I’m hoping, hoping to go to law school.
Nestor Aparicio 07:45
8Think you’re gonna run the world, from what I can tell, you know, just a little bit,
Karis Joyner 07:49
just a little bit, just a little whatever I can do to contribute so, but I started off studying political science. I knew that that’s what I want to study. Off rip going into Coppin. When I applied to other schools, I still applied for political science. Political Science, so I knew this was going to be my track no matter what school I went to,
Nestor Aparicio 08:07
what’s I don’t know you have anything to compare it to being young and Trumpism and the country and the Constitution and all of the laws that are being broken by the president united states and the political science part of that on a college campus. I mean, we hear so much about things you can say or can’t say. I would hope that it at this point, especially for young people like you, and this is the old guy and me talking and went to college years ago, that the open discourse and the notion of what is lawful and what’s unlawful, and the political science of the science not just that it’s being taught, but that students talk about these things, right? I mean, you’re in the political science track and right here, right now? Yeah, politics are in front of us every minute of every day, whether we want it to be or not, exactly.
Karis Joyner 08:53
And I try to make sure students know that are not educated about what is going on around campus. I’m currently working on a civic engagement project where students can learn how to properly engage with politics. I feel like a lot of the times students try to, like, steer away from those conversations, because either it’s like, super combative or people just don’t know enough information. So I’m trying to make sure that there’s a that our students compensate. Students are properly informed. Know how to navigate media and know how to navigate the literature that’s online. Make sure that we’re reading proper sources, primary sources, getting good information, and then being able to reciprocate that, being able to speak about that, have whole conversations on it, and know what you’re talking about, stating facts, as you were alluding to earlier. It’s a crazy political climate out there, and a lot of it has to do with false information. Going around fake news, right? So just making sure that my student, or not my students, but Coppin State students have can navigate the world and and know how to be essentially media
8Nestor Aparicio 10:14
literate. I was gonna media literacy. I’ve been sharing that so I was a journalist at the Baltimore Sun when I was your age, actually, and when I went to college at UB, because it was near, it was near the newspaper at the time, downtown. And, you know, who, what, where, why, when, and facts and fact checking and source checking and all that. I can’t imagine the difficulties of that for a college freshman, you know, in the modern world,
Karis Joyner 10:41
yeah, and it’s really easy to cut corners nowadays with AI. So I just want to make sure that we’re using the resources that we have wisely and intelligently, because those are the things that are inserted us when we go to Coppin, to to use our our potential so and to nurture it and to grow it into something great. So if we use our resources correctly, I’m sure we can do great. I’m gonna have
Nestor Aparicio 11:07
crab cake with you. I’m gonna get you out next to me. Charis Joyner is here. She’s Student Government. SGA pres over Coppet state with the mighty Eagles, and we try to feature them and talk to good things. And more than that, you mentioned AI, yeah, wow. Yowza, right. So I am in the middle of a boot camp because I’m 57 and I’m an old guy, but I, you know, I navigated all these toys when they came out, and I I’m so old we didn’t have the internet. I know that that that really freaks you out. We had, we had card catalogs in the Dewey Decimal System, but the AI thing has blown my 57 year old mind. I don’t know what it would do to a 20 year old, and I my mind gets blown more every day. And I mean, like in the last two or three weeks that I have really rolled my sleeves up to start prompting to have a clone to figure out as a solopreneur what I can do. What does aI mean to someone your age, where, when you were in high school, it wasn’t there either. So it’s a new thing for you, too, but it’s also, I don’t say dangerous, I just think it’s, it needs to be harnessed, much like media literacy. It needs to be streamlined, so that you are getting good results, good information. Because, you know, AI gives and it takes, I think, so far for sure, and
Karis Joyner 12:18
8I definitely agree with that sentiment, that it needs to be like, essentially like regulated, right? Because AI can have biases and all kinds of crazy things that are coming together to make the AI even even happen. But honestly, using AI like as a person like my age, I’m Gen Z, born in 2004 we kind of, like, grew up with technology, so I, I kind of seen this coming, like, you know, from like,
Nestor Aparicio 12:48
because you’ve been googling things since birth. I mean, when we look things up, we had to go to a library or like that. Then it was, look it up on the internet. Then is it true? And now it’s, it’s that on, I mean, on, like, steroids, yeah, on like, whatever. Yeah,
Karis Joyner 13:04
exactly. So now having access to it, it’s just, I think it’s more about, like, making sure we’re not abusing the technology, and like, using it to more so using it to our advantage, instead of taking advantage of it, or making sure that we’re taking advantage of it in ethical ways. I think it’s important that we have like these things, like AI to help us and help us navigate academia in this day and age. But it’s very important to have ethics behind whatever you do, to have morals and standards. So, you know, don’t just copy and paste straight from any chat box, you know, put your own words to it. Make sure it sounds like something you would say. Make sure it sounds like something anybody would say, like a human, because AI, at the end of the day is not, it’s not a human, but it is coming from like it is made by a human, which makes it happens, biases and stuff like that. But yeah, just very much. I think it’s interesting, uh, relationship that we have to build with AI, people my age, because we know it’s going to be there when we’re older. It’s
Nestor Aparicio 14:10
not going away. Yeah, right, it’s gonna be that’s why I’m telling people my age, you got to learn it, because then and we talk education at copping, and that’s what you’re there for. Education never ends. I mean, I’ve certainly learned that the last couple of weeks, because my mind is blown by this, this new thing, AI,
8Karis Joyner 14:24
yeah, for sure. So I think it’s just yeah, about just maintaining and, like, creating good, healthy relationships with your AI and with AI platforms, and making sure that, you know, excuse me, that we’re setting proper, like, boundaries, um, kind of like how you would do like a real person.
Nestor Aparicio 14:42
I am trying to figure out my clone. And, you know, my wife keeps saying, two of you, the world’s not ready for that with unlimited it’s a lie, absolutely and prompting Charis joiners here. So give me the student government piece, because that is kind of why you were here, from a leadership perspective. Talk about all these things, but I’m. I’m so did you get into Student Government right away as a freshman? I
Karis Joyner 15:04
actually did. So I’ve been in student government all four years. My freshman year, I got in, I was interviewed, and they for and I ran for freshman class secretary. I ran with two of my friends, and they ran for, like, President, Vice President, and we kind of, like, just jumped right into it to see what SGA was. And I loved it. I liked getting to, like, partner with different departments on professional levels, especially, like Title Nine is a consistent partner that we’ve dealt with over, you know, over with SGA for my four
Nestor Aparicio 15:41
8years, I did a whole segment last year on Title Nine. You could Google that up at Baltimore. Positive is really
Karis Joyner 15:46
educational. Yes, I I love, I love everything about Title Nine. And so getting into the weeds with that. My sophomore year, I ran for sophomore class Secretary as well. And then my junior year, I decided to run for vice president, like executive vice president, so I could kind of, like, lean my or, like, ease my way into the presidency. But unfortunately, I did not win that. That election. Instead, I was, I was appointed executive secretary. So I was on the E Board. I still worked very closely with the prior SGA president, Melanie Morales, and she was great, helped me through a lot of different things, and really prepared me for this position that I’m in now.
Nestor Aparicio 16:37
What is the what is it? What does it do when you all meet on a campus, I’m too old to remember what I did as Sergeant in arms. I don’t remember much about
Karis Joyner 16:46
it. Yeah. So we try to make sure that one all of our students feel heard and seen on campus, having an outlet to go to when things just don’t feel right. You know, everybody I feel like has this like, internal sense of like, so this doesn’t feel right, like you feel like you were wronged, or it’s like a complicated situation. And we want to make sure students feel comfortable safe like this is your home. This is where you can invest in in Coppin, right? So a part of that job is to make sure that our students, like I said, feel seen and heard. So if students have concerns complaints, they want to see something on campus, they usually try to find us, or they’ll be directed towards us. Our inbox is constantly flooding, probably flooding as I speak. What’s
8Nestor Aparicio 17:38
the number one thing somebody would come to Student Government, as a student about that you could help them with.
Karis Joyner 17:43
For sure, I definitely, well, oh my gosh, the number one thing. I wish I had number one thing. But for honestly, for me, you can come to me about anything. I am very well connected and have, like, a very good network at Coppin that I built outside of SGA, like prior to becoming president. So if I can use those networks and those connections to help other people with any problem or issue that they have, whether it be a professor issue, whether it be like a grade change issue, whether it be calf, you know, cafeteria food issue, or transportation, whether you are trying to go to a conference to better yourself, whatever you need. We’re here to invest in our students and like, just to further, like, solidify their decision in coming to coffin, making them want to stay, retaining them. It’s a huge component of what SGA does to make sure we’re staying engaged with the students and making sure their their voices are heard by the faculty and administration and staff in a proper way. Because a lot of the times it can get rowdy, it can
Nestor Aparicio 19:00
get combustible. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, when people are have a problem or have a conflict for sure, right?
Karis Joyner 19:05
8So keeping it, keeping level heads, is very important, you know, in the in student government in general, because a lot of frustrating things will come your way, but it’s about how you handle it. And so I think, you know, just making sure that you know, having level heads, having a good support system around you, people that you can confide in, you know, to really help you through the process. Because, like I said, it’s, it’s a lot of different components to SGA. You have your, of course, like interacting with students on, like, the daily level, and then you have interacting with faculty and administration and staff, because they want to see a little bit of certain things. And just like, okay, cool. Like, maybe we can try to work something in there, but we’re really ultimately here to serve the students. And so,
Nestor Aparicio 19:54
yeah, you get my vote. Karis, I’ll tell you right now. Charis joiner is here. She is over, cop, it’s. Eight, she is presidenting and all things presidential for the student government over there, as well as a senior working her way through. You’re gonna, you’re gonna wind up back in school next year, right? You’re not, you’re not done, you’re, you’re you’re on a tree. You got a few more years of education left in you, I think,
Karis Joyner 20:14
yeah, I do. I’m not sure if I’m gonna go, like, right into it, like I’m going to be in school next year, but I’m definitely planning to go to law school. One of my schools that I’m really want to go and be at is a University of Baltimore, my alma mater. Hey, faculty, fingers crossed.
Nestor Aparicio 20:35
I’m gonna call Mayor Schmoke and see we can put together there. I think he knows Dr Jenkins too. So nice grad program at Coppin now. So they’ll remind me about all that Harris joiners here as part of our ongoing Coppin State education series, and talking about good things happen over in West Baltimore. What’s your favorite thing about Coppin? Last thing I will drop the drop them like which, if for anybody out there who’s got a child considering comp and or they’re considering extending their education, give me what you love the most about cop.
8Karis Joyner 21:04
I love the environment. I love I love the family aspect, the campus environment. Honestly, it is very like, although we’re in West Baltimore and in like, literally in the city, it does not feel like it at all. Sometimes I, when I was living on campus, I was like, Oh my gosh. Like, am I even in the city right now? Like, you don’t hear anything going on. Like, that’s crazy. But yeah, I would say the environment, it’s very safe. We’re, like, one of the safest schools in Maryland. I think that’s a very important aspect. When you’re sending your child, you know, away, or you go into picking a school, you’re the safety aspect, especially in Baltimore City.
Nestor Aparicio 21:45
But, and we’re both from Baltimore, so we can say that, yeah, for sure. Oh, I, you know, I love coming over to cop, and I love promoting it. And every time I have somebody like you want, I’m like, there’s good people over there. Every time I’m there, I’m like, man, they’re doing good stuff over cop. And so it’s a it’s pleasure to see your smile. Hey, good luck. I you know you’re gonna be running the world soon. So you, you, you brought me a little bit of hope today. Karis, I’m glad. Well, your generation gets slogged. You know what I mean by the old people like us. So you know, good to see these young people working. Kara short is here. She’s the president of Student Government over at Compton state. Thanks for coming on, and I owe you a crab cake at Cocos. No doubt. If that’s your favorite, that’s, you know, that’s, that’s, I can arrange that. I can arrange that. Let’s do it next thing, all right, and get all your brothers and sisters and cousins over. Morgan, bring them over to they they can ride their bike. They know how to find it. We are in the middle of football season. In the middle of Thanksgiving as well. I’m going to be having some pecan pie, maybe some pumpkin pie next week, a la mode, because I’m going to put a little scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on all that. My big thanks to my friends at GBMC for sponsoring us, as well as Coppin State. And of course, we’re going to be doing the Maryland crab cake tour, getting it back out on the road in the aforementioned Cocos as well as Costas and some other places fade these. We’re going to be down there before Christmas as well. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking good stuff in Baltimore and Baltimore. Positive. Stay with us. You.
