I can’t speak for every major, as some require internships, final projects, or clinicals. For broadcast journalism students, our final stretch is our capstone class: The Charge On Air. It’s where all the magic happens, where everything we’ve learned comes together for webcasts and newscasts, where our portfolios are wrapped up in a neat bow.
When we think about our last semester, we often focus on the work, deadlines, pressure, and preparation for what comes next. However, what if what stays with us the most isn’t what we did, but who we did it with?
Camera ready. Stories in. Live shots, graphics, teasers set—each step a building block of the show. The final moment always feels the same: “3, 2, 1… we’re live.” The silence breaks into what the camera sees: a 30-minute newscast of carefully timed stories and segments, produced with intention and brought to life by the reporters’ work.
What viewers don’t see is the world behind it. Concealer masks sleepless nights of editing. The producer stands on edge, holding the entire show together in real time. The production team crafts the videos, audio, and graphics. Reporters chase stories in the field, finding sources, facing rejection, landing interviews, and racing back to turn the story around.
It’s the missed sleep, the late-night pizza runs, the “Thursday grind.” It’s cheering each other on, both on screen and behind the scenes. It’s bringing stories to life and telling our classmates’ stories—fully understanding the work, effort, and heart behind every single one.
I don’t think I was ever fully prepared for what this group of people would teach me or the impact they would leave on me. Most of my capstone class graduated this past fall, and as I graduate this semester, I find myself reflecting and holding onto the best moments from last semester a little more closely than I expected to.
Some of my classmates are pursuing careers in journalism, while others have taken different paths and are stepping into entirely new fields. I can’t help but feel moved by it. I know there are about fifteen very lucky employers welcoming some of the most dedicated, hardworking people I’ve worked alongside.
I think any experience is rewarding if you can come out of it knowing that you gained something more valuable than what’s seen at face value. When we share someone’s story on air, viewers only see a 15-second interview clip. What they don’t see is the 30-minute or sometimes hour-long conversation it came from, or the 1:45-minute story that was shaped through hours in the newsroom.
It’s the same newsroom where a capstone class spends long nights building more than just newscasts. It gives us the time to form friendships, confide in each other about the uncertainty of life after college, and still make sure the story gets in.
Our final show was, in many ways, the hardest. We knew it was the end, and of course, that was expected. Then comes the part no one really prepares you for: moving on. It all becomes a memory, just like college itself eventually will. The memories will find their way back, prompted by the newscasts that captured our final work at UCF. We may even laugh at ourselves or cringe when we remember what went into that specific show.
I really thank my lucky stars that my classes lined up the way they did and placed me in the Fall 2025 capstone semester. There were capstones before us, and there will be capstones after us, but this one was ours.
Through this class, I met some of my closest friends, people who made the long nights, the pressure, and the deadlines feel lighter. News to me became more than production or airtime. It became the stories we leave behind and the people who shape us while we’re telling them.
To my capstone class: you were never just a class. You were an experience that can’t be put into words. I hope you all get everything you’re working toward and hopefully more sleep!
When all is said and done, I think this will be the part I come back to, the stories we told and the final moment we signed off.