STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: OUR ROCKSTAR DIGITal platform consultant, MADELINE SECK
By: Max Khatchadourian and Jonah Wisniewski
OCC head of Digital Resource Development Madeline “Maddie” Seck has an impressive resume, having worked in several digital and journalism positions throughout her career. In addition to working with OCC, Maddie serves as the president of Maryland’s National Association of Black Journalists chapter, the engagement editor of The Black Explosion newspaper, and an on-air reporter for PGCTV. With so much experience in the field of journalism and digital content, we thought it would be interesting to interview Maddie about her life and work, writing a biography for our very own head of Digital Resource Development.
When Maddie first came to UMD, she had no plans to major in journalism. Starting out as a communications major, Maddie was open to experimenting with many different fields of study. Her favorite thing to do was hands-on work, and after seeing how UMD’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism offered practical broadcast experience, Maddie decided to take a class with them. This got her hooked on journalism, officially becoming a Communications and Journalism double major. Maddie considers herself to be a jack of all trades, but she found herself especially adept at digital communications. She already had years of experience with social media, running her own Youtube channel since 2020 and managing her personal Tiktok account to moderate success. This interest in digital content management led her to work for The Diamondback, creating works that caught the attention of The Black Explosion, UMD’s premier black student newspaper. Maddie was personally invited to join The Black Explosion’s digital engagement team, eventually working her way up to become its head of digital engagement. She also joined UMD’s chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, a space where she was able to meet with other professionals and hone her craft in a collaborative environment.
In Maddie’s sophomore year, she joined the Oral Communication Center as a consultant, something she originally thought of as completely separate to her journalism career. Maddie enjoys getting to do many varied hands-on activities, and getting to see firsthand how her consultations helped people with their speech needs really inspired Maddie. As she stuck with the OCC, she began to become interested in the OCC’s digital operations, realizing how she could apply her journalism and digital skills to an organization that she cared about. In addition, digital work for the OCC is a lot different than for journalism, as the OCC’s communications function more as public relations than journalism. This has allowed Maddie to expand her already wide skillset even further. Maddie improved her journalism skills to such an extent that she was elected president of the UMD National Association of Black Journalism, a position she uses to help other students interested in journalism enter the field. Her work has taken her everywhere from the halls of Congress to presenting at the Capital Emmys, which has connected her with notable professional mentors such as NBC 4’s Tracee Wilkins and Fox 5’s Kelsey Nicole Nelson. Maddie currently works as an on-air reporter for Prince Georges Community Television, but her true passion remains in multimedia journalism. Maddie sees digital communications as the future of journalism, and wants to continue mastering a wide variety of skills and platforms. Maddie’s work has been invaluable to the OCC, and we can’t wait to see where her work takes her next!