Philip Merrill College of Journalism | University of Maryland

Humphrey Director Lucinda Fleeson Leads Journalism Class to Vietnam

Program collaborates with Humphrey fellows

When 12 University of Maryland journalism students traveled to Vietnam to report stories in multi-media formats, they carried cameras, audio recorders and notebooks. They also had a secret weapon that made the assignment much easier: Humphrey Fellows.

Before even leaving for the Spring Break trip in March 2008, they were helped on campus by Humphrey Fellow Hoa Nguyen (Class of 2007-2008), an editor with Ho Chi Minh City Television. He guided us a hundred ways in planning the trip. After we got back, he put in lots of hours translating and advising students on their stories.

Hoa also put us in touch with the formidable Thu Nguyen, a Humphrey Fellow at UC Davis (Class of 2005 – 2006), who served as our gracious host and contact in Hanoi. She found local journalists and others with English skills so that each student reporting team had its own translator. Thu arranged a lot of our logistics, as well as introducing us to Angela Aggeler, the Public Information officer for the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. Mrs. Aggeler and her husband Brian, the Embassy Counselor for Political Affairs, hosted a memorable dinner in their home for our students and the half-dozen Humphrey alumni in the Hanoi area.

Another highlight was a visit with former Maryland Humphrey Fellow San Truong (2005-2006), a distinguished Vietnamese journalist for the Vietnam Economic Times in HCMC, who flew up to Hanoi to meet with us.

**The group in Vietnam**

The Vietnam trip fulfilled a personal goal of mine, which was to connect foreign journalists with American students. As we continue to plan international reporting classes, the Humphrey alumni network offers a wonderful resource.

In Vietnam, we assigned students several objectives beyond the already daunting mission to find, report and deliver a piece of international journalism. They had to quickly learn how to work with an interpreter while navigating cultural differences and foreign territory. We wanted students to work in pairs to learn about storytelling in other mediums, as well as to participate in both the glory and frustrations of a group project. The students brought an arsenal of varied skills, including print, on-line, video, photography and radio experience.

We’re proud of the result: www.merrill.umd.edu/dateline/vietnam.

Stories ranged from a print article, “Rising Dragon in Northern Vietnam,” about the boom modern city under construction outside the ancient capitol of Hanoi; to a video report about how a new motorcycle helmet law is reducing Vietnam’s high vehicle fatality rate; to a stunning story, slide-show and audio report about the “Hip-hop Hanoi Style: Dancing in the Shadow of Lenin and Uncle Ho.”

Before they even boarded the plane, our five graduate and seven undergraduate students had decided to focus on the country’s future. Members of a different generation than the one that had to fight in the war, these students were attracted to the country’s rapid changes, not the past conflict that seems as distant to them as it does to the youth of Vietnam.

by Lucinda Fleeson, January 2009