By Angeline Patrick Pacheco, Johnson Senior High School
The Under-Told Stories Project, an international news program based out of The University of St. Thomas and broadcasted on PBS NewsHour, was recently nominated for a national Emmy award for their series on a global waste trail. St. Thomas and ThreeSixty Journalism alumnus Simeon Lancaster ‘17, is a senior producer on the project.
“I feel like I already won. I’m just a kid from St Paul, and it feels like I’ve stepped into a bigger arena,” he said.
The Under-Told Stories Project, directed by Fred de Sam Lazaro, is a news program that aims to highlight underrepresented international voices in American media. They’ve reported all around the world from Rwanda to Thailand to India to right back in Minnesota on a large variety of topics.
“Toxic Trifecta”, the project that earned the nomination, takes place in Ghana and focuses primarily on the global exports of electronic, automotive, and textile waste. They investigate where this waste ends up as well as the environmental impacts of the exports.
Lancaster first realized his love for journalism when he was a teenager through a ThreeSixty after school camp with the Pioneer Press. “It was so gripping right away. There was this exercise where they said, I think on our first night, ‘go out onto the streets and interview three people,’ and that totally scared the crap out of me.”
One interviewee especially stuck in his mind: a migrant father at a bus stop.
“Very simple conversation, a language barrier. But he said, ‘I’m here to work for my family, and send money home to my kids,’ It was a light bulb moment for me that every single person has stories to tell. There’s content that’s rich, that’s human and meaningful,” said Lancaster. “It blew my mind, and I was hooked.”
Lancaster continued to work with ThreeSixty throughout his high school career and was eventually awarded the program’s full-tuition scholarship to study journalism at St. Thomas. “I wouldn’t be where I am without the after school program. It was a kick that I needed that woke up this inspiration.”
At St. Thomas, he was involved with TommieMedia (now the Crest), the university’s student news outlet. He began working with Under-Told Stories Project before graduating.
“I became their first intern, and there was a scholarship to send me on a trip with them. That was when I was like, hook, line and sinker. I knew I wanted to do what they were doing, if not with them, somewhere, somehow.” When he graduated, he began working with the program full time.
Lancaster has been interested in telling international stories since he was a child. “It always struck me how little news there was from the rest of the world. So frequently, the international news started with a death toll,” said Lancaster. He wanted to be a part of bringing a change to that in the media, particularly: ”restoring empathy for distant people in distant places in an increasingly apathetic world.”
Lancaster stresses the importance of ethical, empathetic reporting in his work. “These are core things that you think should be elemental, but frequently are left behind as news moves towards more sensationalist reporting. It’s inherently unbalanced, so what can we do to mitigate that? Just being aware of it, and not treating people like just a piece of your story, but treating them as real people.”
Lancaster says his boss, Fred de Sam Lazaro, has set a powerful example of how to do that.“I’m a strong believer in the way that we do things here. Under Fred’s guidance, he sets the tone for everything as the director of the project.”
“Fred has been doing this for, I think, longer than I’ve been alive. He’s become a mentor as well,” he said.
Lancaster spoke highly of the news team he worked with for the Toxic Trifecta project but also with PBS NewsHour, saying “It’s a true collaborative experience. It’s a privilege to be in media and to work on a team as large and seasoned. They say, if you go work with local news, expect to be a one man band…we don’t do that here, and it makes a difference.The Emmy nomination is for that story, but it feels like it’s a high point of a long journey of hard work.”
The award winners will be announced on June 25 in New York and the event will be streamed at watch.theEmmys.tv.
