Academic Achiever of the Week: Sam Gottfried

MARIETTA, Ohio. (WTAP) - Our Academic Achiever of the Week does a little bit of everything but there’s something that connects everything that he does.

Sam Gottfried is graduating with a diploma and an Eagle Scout badge.

Scouts has been a part of his life since he was six years old.

Sam said, “It’s kind of accumulated this year. It’s been eleven years of me doing scouting and I finally got my project done at the dog park on Cisler.”

Beyond adding on to the dog park, Sam has also learned sailing through scouts.

“I think I’m a pretty adventurous person. I like to get out there and explore some new things,” he said.

It’s part of the reason Sam’s involved in so many different things - from being president of the interact club to competing with the swim team to running with the cross country team to leading as student body president.

However, one of his favorite extracurriculars is Tiger TV.

Sam said, “We have cooking segments, we have like - we have showcasing cars, we have roving tiger where we ask students different questions - their thoughts on school events or something like that - just anything having to do with the school, we put it in a fun video.”

It’s what made him realize he wants to work in media.

He said, “One thing I really like about media is that it brings a connection with everyone, no matter if it’s a negative connection or a positive connection, like very meaningful or lighthearted and happy, I think that I like to bring that connection with everyone.”

Sam’s love of connecting with people seems to be the pattern that ties together everything he does.

It’s something he traces back to his family.

“I think they always tried for me to be outgoing with everyone, try to talk to people, and like if you see someone that’s not interacting with others, go and talk to them, see what they’re about,” Sam said.

Meeting new people is one of the things he’s looking forward to about college.

“I think it’s very very cool just to hear what other people have to say about their lives, their experiences, and try and make a connection with them,” he said.

Sam hopes to connect with more people through college and his career. He will be majoring in media production at Ohio University.

Copyright 2021 WTAP. All rights reserved.