Looking to future, Sawyer gains that sense of drive

By Jennifer Igbonoba
Trendsetter Team

In the crowded hallways of Heritage High School, Sawyer Dodd may look like any other guy with long hair. But looking beyond the hair strands is an individual driven by the curiosities of the world around him.

Hailing from Bartlesville, Okla., Dodd has lived in the Frisco area since he was six months old. He attended both Sem Elementary School and Maus Middle School, where he started his journalism journey by choosing the multimedia class over the robotics class.

“I wanted to work with computers,” Dodd said. “I knew at the time we had a robotics class, but there was like so many people applying for it and it just wasn’t something that I was too passionate about.”

After taking the multimedia class, Dodd became part of the broadcast team at Maus as an eighth-grader, which he described as being “student-driven.”

However, his time in the class was cut short due to the pandemic. As a natural academic, success in doing activities came naturally to him, but he learned how to become a hard worker later in his high school career.

“It wasn’t until my junior year most recently or at least late sophomore year, that I found that sense of drive,” Dodd said. “…The feeling of doing good and pushing yourself to work hard and have something to show for it feels good, and that’s what kind of shifted in my mindset during high school to become like a hardworking person.”

Continuing his interest in broadcast journalism, Dodd joined the broadcast team at Heritage where he said his talent “shines” in video editing, but it doesn’t limit him to only behind-the-scenes work. Earlier this year, Dodd received first place in Anchor Reads at the 2nd Annual Frisco ISD Broadcast Competition.

“…That really set this idea of ‘oh, you can work hard, and you get rewarded for working hard, and it’s worth it to work harder.’”

Dodd is undecided about whether he wants to take up another extracurricular activity this upcoming school year or what to major in during college. He admits he has a little bit of fear when thinking about college.

“I feel like there’s a lot of pressure for people to know at this age what they want to go to college for and what they want to continue to pursue,” Dodd said. “And so, because of that I feel like there’s a lot of pressure associated with college…” Dodd likes to play piano and has expressed interest in producing documentaries.

Jennifer Igbonoba is a sophomore at George Washington University where she is studying economics and journalism. She was a 2021 Fellow in the Scripps Howard Program at the University of North Texas and this is her second internship with I Messenger Media.