The Slice
UMD Journalism Showcase
5/8/2026 | 1m 49sVideo has Closed Captions
Students at UMD share their projects at the department's annual Journalism Showcase...
Students at UMD share their projects at the department's annual Journalism Showcase as a longtime professor retires with fond stories to remember.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
The Slice is a local public television program presented by PBS North
The Slice
UMD Journalism Showcase
5/8/2026 | 1m 49sVideo has Closed Captions
Students at UMD share their projects at the department's annual Journalism Showcase as a longtime professor retires with fond stories to remember.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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The journalism program has such a strong connection with local media.
I'm John Hatcher and I'm a professor of journalism here at UMD.
And we're here at the UMD Journalism Showcase.
The showcase was something we created, I don't know, about ten, 15 years ago.
And we just were looking for an opportunity for students to showcase their work and to get feedback and mentoring from area professionals.
I look at noise level We have projects in this class that look at things like affordable housing, but also featuring local authors.
We have projects that look at their favorite coffee shops and things to think about when you're looking at that.
Where are places to go for a hike, a project that is designed to offer support for veterans, people who work in public safety.
So it really is open to the students to go out and out into the world and find stories that need to be told and problems that need to be solved.
Students are really encouraged to think about stepping outside of their comfort zones, telling stories, using media that they haven't used before.
I think that the tools and that encouragement to to solve problems, I think that is so valuable, no matter what they do or where they go with it.
Yeah.
Was trying to... I'm retiring at the end of this semester.
In fact, this is my my last class as a full time faculty member here at UMD.
Hearing from students that what they've done here in our journalism program has been a value to them, I think has been very rewarding.
At its essence, I think the heart of journalism hasn't changed that much.
I think at its best, it's still looking into the local community, trying to think about the voices that need to be heard from, the problems that need to be solved and the stories that need to be told, and especially the stories of people who may not normally be in the news, but people, just ordinary people living their lives but facing challenges that other people might also experience.
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The Slice is a local public television program presented by PBS North