The Beautiful Jessmine Cornelius known as Jess Suilenroc (which is her last name spelled backwards) is a talented viral video cover artist and singer with a gentle soul. This is a young woman who the world will surely see do some great things to help empower people.

I Ascend: Who is Jess Suilenroc?

Jess: I am someone who believes that being genuine is key. I am true to myself, which is why I have been kind of on a steady scope in terms of the musical path. Education is my number one priority in life. Education is my passion with singing being my gift, it has made room for itself. I am learning how to navigate all these premises, and maintain balance. I am a very passionate person once I put my mind to something, I am going for it. This is one reason I have not really been focused on music until lately, because I knew I had to finish school first. I would say Jessmine is very passionate, very driven, very genuine and trying to live life right.

I Ascend: I understand you are now in graduate school.

Jess: Yes, I am getting an education and helping others matriculate through their educational journey. Something my late grandmother would always say is “Knowledge is power, Education is key.” I received my BA in history from the greatest HBCU (Historically Black College and University) in the land, Prairie View, no arguments needed for this University. I started my associates in 2014 at Blinn College in Brenham, Texas and I did not finish but I went back in May of this year. I completed my Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts at Blinn, and I am currently working on two degrees. I am working on my second bachelor’s in Organizational Management and Leadership at Morris Brown College and a Master of Arts in History at the Jackson State University. So, I am a HBCU champion and advocate.

I Ascend: When did your musical journey begin?

Jess: I remember singing as early as six. However, mom and everybody else will say that they remembered it being sooner. I come from a singing family, both of my parents sing exceptionally well. I remember my brother and I would be running errands with my mom. Once we would get back home, we would be sitting in the backseat of the car then my mom would say, all right, before we get out of the car, you each must sing your verse. There were two songs that we always sung, “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here” by Deborah Cox and “Lean on Me” by Kirk Franklin. We could not get out the car until we got those songs together.

I Ascend: I understand a viral video changed the trajectory of your musical endeavors or is it one of the many things that propelled you?

Jess: Yes, I would say that the video changed things, However, I was in choir throughout my younger school years. My choir teachers would say I had natural talent; However, I was always getting into trouble. I never really embodied the confidence that I now have that I am older. When silly went viral in 2016, the story behind this was, I did that video in one take because my boyfriend at the time had left me. I had just come home after finals. He had gone to Mississippi to a friend’s graduation and I just felt some type of way. I had driven three and a half hours to get home. I really wanted to see and be with him. I deleted the video a month and a half later because my hair was not done. It already had over 700,000 views and I could not let that video hit a million views with my hair looking like that. (A soft chuckle) The song “Silly” is one of those songs, where if you can do it, you got to do it. You must be in a place when you do it, an emotional place. When I recorded it the second time and it started climbing, I was at 100,000 views in a week. When I hit a million views on my page, I knew I needed to create a music page to separate my personal page from the music page. After a few celebrities picked it up, that is when I started getting all these followers. I did not release anything else at that time, because my intention was never to go viral. I was just uploading a video of me singing but I went viral from that. The video jumped to two million views, then four million views and I was at ten million views by the end of the month. When I uploaded more videos of me singing other songs, they started going viral too. I got on a system because I was in school and I was like, well, you know, I do not want to sit in the camera every week. So, I said, Lord, if you could just give me one viral video per year, I will be good because once you have one out there, they continue to circulate. So ever since then, I have had a couple of viral videos each year. Yes, that viral video changed things, it catapulted everything concerning my music path.

I Ascend: What has been your process of becoming?

Jess: Staying grounded, I felt like I could not really exhale until I finished my bachelor’s degree. One of those reasons is to honor my grandmother which I lost eight years ago. When I got out of the military, which is when I lost her, I knew I had to go back to school. At the time, I wanted to be a high school teacher. You got to find your own so staying grounded has been key, there have been many opportunities that I have passed up to take a step into the entertainment industry. I said No, not until I graduated and then once I graduated, I had developed all this stuff by myself. I have never paid for a follower. I have never paid for view. I have never paid for any type of metric that comes with being popular or well known on social media. In a couple of weeks, I hit the half a million follower’s mark. That meant a lot to me because I remember when I first started. People have remained with me since then, to see my growth and to know it has been organic. I have remained genuine, being truthful, that is all that I am. I believe in the importance of having humility because you don’t know it all. You are not always right and people will always remember things that you say, because they’ll always remember how you made them feel. So, I try to stay grounded, remain genuine, and always try to be honest.

I Ascend: What have been the hardships you faced in Ascending to where you are currently?

Jess: I would say, life hardships because I continue to choose to live life on my terms. While an undergraduate student I worked three different jobs. I did not have to, I could have just said, I’m open to bookings. If I would have booked three or four events in one month, I could have been straight, all my bills would have been paid. So, I have experienced financial hardship. I have experienced emotional hardships, anybody who has gone to school, can understand the collegiate struggle. My family is my family, but I did a lot of things on my own with the support emotionally of people I did not know, especially from my followers. Proverbs 18:24 says, there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. I have had some of those kind of people in my life, some of them I did not know long, but I feel like that’s what the collegiate experience is about. I used to wonder sometimes what it would be like if I took the opportunity to do something different, because schools were not going anywhere, I could have always come back and completed my education. I was kind of second guessing myself. Struggling with my growth in my faith, trying to figure out where I fit in spiritually as well. But I soon realized, I had to get it done before I took a step into another element, especially the entertainment world, because if you really do not know yourself before you go into any type of territory, it can be a lot harder to figure out.

I Ascend: I want to congratulate you on Ascending and standing in your truth and pursuing your destiny.
What do you want people to remember about you?

Jess: I want people to remember that I was always genuine. That I was always true to myself, and I did not falter. I have had so many opportunities to be somewhere bigger and better. However, it would have come with the price of uncertainty. It would have come with the price of not knowing, that if this does not work out, what can I fall back on? I pride myself on being true to self. If people do not know me for anything more than singing, they got to know that I’m very genuine and very personable. Whether it is me interacting with my followers on social media or in general. Even with my manager it took me a while to allow him to have access to my social media account because I am so adamant on talking to my followers and always interacting with them myself.

I Ascend: What word of advice would you give to readers to have them to continue to Ascend in pursuit of their dream, no matter where they are currently?

Jess: First and foremost, be patient. This is a process that has taken me five years, I do not even believe I’m on the surface of what’s to come. So, patience is a key element that must be factored in. Understand that in the interim, everything happens for a reason. You may not understand why things are happening the way they are currently, but you might look back on it in ten years, and you will be like, it all makes sense. For example, one thing I hated when I was younger was singing in front of people. But my grandmother used to always put me on the program to sing at local events. This would really upset me however, now that I am older I get it, nobody else was pushing me at that point in time to sing. I would not have been able to really understand my gifts and understand my craft had my grandmother not done that for me. Everything happens for a reason. Your time may not be somebody else’s time in comparison. Comparison is the thief of joy. Do not ever compare your journey to anybody else’s, because you have no idea what people have gone through or what they are currently going through to be where they are right now.

I Ascend: Share some of the things that you are currently working on and how readers can follow and continue this journey with you.

Jess: Hopefully, in this New Year, I will have my next single released. You can follow me on social media, where you will get to see my journey of struggling to get through school, working and just maintaining a work life balance with a little travel in between. All my social media handles are JSUILENROC, on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.