The first table Hycall Brooks saw at ConnectFest was Student Media. It was serendipity. He had transferred to UAB after his freshman year - Atlanta had proven too expensive - and was looking for a way to carve out a new place for himself. Photography and short films had always been a creative outlet, something that helped him step back and breathe. Student Media seemed like the perfect fit.
“I was shy back then,” Hycall remembers. “But Student Media pushed me out of my shell. It taught me how to talk to people, how to listen to people. Those soft skills carried over everywhere - in class, in relationships, even in how I understood myself.”
That sense of belonging, fragile at first, grew into something life-sustaining. Finances were a constant challenge. At one point he ran out of money and had to sit out a semester. When he returned, he still wasn’t sure he could afford to stay. Jackie Alexander, the Director of Student Media, saw the strain and asked him to work there. The trust she had anchored him. “Her being in my corner made all the difference,” he says. “She showed me other resources, too, and that’s when I started learning how much support UAB actually offers.”
Blazer Kitchen provided food and school supplies. The Off Campus Student Lounge offered a quiet place to study, tutoring, and even doughnuts on Wednesday mornings. The Rec Center not only revitalized his love for swimming but introduced what he says may have been “one of the most important classes I’ve ever taken in my life”: weight training. “It helped with overall body function and made everyday things like walking up and down stairs and hills easier. Being in better shape makes everything better. It even improves thinking.” The Hill Student Center Game Room offered both stress relief and camaraderie—sometimes even a quiet spot to study when not crowded.
Still, there were darker days. He thought he could do it all on his own during his sophomore year, which took its toll. “I can get in my own way,” Hycall admits. “Sometimes it was a struggle just to get out of bed, to get through the day, sometimes even through the month.” Anxiety and depression, often hidden behind the humor he was known for in his family, became unbearable. Student Counseling and Student Health Services, working in tandem, became lifelines. “They saved me,” he says simply.
Growing up homeschooled in Birmingham, the second oldest of six, Hycall had long known the pressure of responsibility. But college—especially with financial strain and hidden struggles—was different. He admits it still amazes him how much support was available once he reached for it.
“I was blown awayoverwhelmed really by how much help there is,” he says. “It’s just that so many of us don’t ask for it. We wear masks. We wait too long.”
Despite early setbacks. ACT score kept him from being admitted to UAB initially—Hycall proved his resilience. He recently graduated with a B.A. in General Studies, focusing on chemistry and African American studies. Ironically, the very subjects he once struggled with—math and science—became the ones he most enjoyed. His interest in improving community health by overcoming gaps in access deepened through clinical experience, and he discovered an interest in organic chemistry and biochemistry research. Hycall now dreams of teaching science in some form, perhaps using media as an educational component.
“I didn’t know how much I enjoyed teaching until I tried it,” he says. “Now, I want to help people the way others helped me.”
For now, he plans to pause before graduate school - “let the adrenaline settle,” as he puts it—but his path is clear. As a caring community, Student Affairs helps students at every stage, no matter the problem, with a variety of resources. But nothing is more important than being there to catch students when they fall. The best kind of safety net is woven from many threads
For Hycall Brooks, fostering a caring community isn’t an abstract goal. It’s lived experience. It’s what carried him through struggle, what steadied him when things felt uncertain, and what inspires him to keep going - toward graduate school, toward teaching, and toward helping others find the same support he once needed.