Kettering Fairmont Teacher Uses Real Media Experience to set Students up for Success
By Abigail Finke
Mon May 5, 2025
After decades working at popular television stations, Laura Hutchens is making a difference at Kettering Fairmont High School with the Interactive Media program. It’s a part of the school’s Career Tech Center, allowing students to develop skills applicable in the workforce.
Since joining Fairmont, Hutchens has turned the program around and helped young media and film enthusiasts continue their dreams. The Interactive Media class helps connect students through morning announcements and other productions.
Today, many of Hutchens’ students are working in sports broadcasting, on major films, and are even owning their own media companies.
Originally from Southern Ohio, Hutchens attended Wright State University to study Mass Communication. She initially became interested in the media field after taking her sister to a meeting for the Miami Valley Communication Council to do a MTV-style show for teenagers. She told me she “was not serious about it all, but once [she] got there and started doing it, it was really fun.”
The summer after graduating, her and her spouse moved to Atlanta where they both were involved in the industry. Hutchens started off working in traffic for TBS and TNT, meaning she would schedule content for the channels.
Eventually she was hired as a production assistant for Cartoon Network, just a few months before the network aired in 1992. Months later, she began freelancing for various broadcasting groups in Atlanta.
Hutchens returned back to Ohio, wanting to be closer to family, and took the job at Kettering Fairmont High School. At first, she “didn’t really understand truly what a time commitment teaching was going to be,” but quickly came to enjoy the environment.
Through Interactive Media, Hutchens teaches media literacy as well, ensuring students know what is going into the movies and television they watch. She mentioned that “you can no longer be fooled” when you realize “how decisions were made about what goes into a story and what gets left out.” Even though some students have ventured into other fields, they have the experience necessary to understand the media they consume.
Hutchens told the story of a boy she had in class many years ago, who would do a weekly cooking show on the morning announcements. This year, she has his daughter in class, who shows her her father’s cooking segment on local television.
Her impact on her students remains with them throughout their careers. In recent years, she has continued to inspire the next generation of media professionals.