Sawyer Bess

Sawyer Bess (12) gets ready to interview with his creative director Jacob King. “It was a great experience. I got to meet a lot of people and to learn a lot more about St. Louis itself,” Bess said. “Everyone at Aligned Media was super helpful and welcoming to me, and I’m so glad I did the internship.” Bess will attend Mizzou for their journalism program after graduating.

Many OHS journalism members intend to continue a journalist career path, but one student in particular is gaining hands-on experience already in his senior year of high school. 

Sawyer Bess (12) recently completed a media internship for Aligned Media, a St. Louis-based advertising agency that is co-owned by a Mehlville School District board member Scott Huegerich. Huegerich offered the internship to two MSD students who wanted to get more experience and insight into the world of journalism and video production. Bess was the intern chosen from OHS. 

“My journalism adviser Mrs. Manolis came to me and said, ‘There is an internship being offered for video production through one of the board members of Mehlville School District,’” Bess said. “Manolis gave me to him because I’ve done broadcast for the past three years at OHS.”

With Bess’ extensive experience, he was able to receive even more hands-on insight into the real-life applications of journalism and video production. 

“They had very expensive and very good equipment, and a lot of it,” Bess said. “I got to learn how to use high-level cameras that they use for movies and commercials [and] I got to learn how to set up real lighting and how video production works.”

Using high-level equipment was a unique opportunity compared to Oakville’s smaller budget, but Bess gained additional skills with video production. 

“A lot of it is client work, like, hey what does the client want, what does their company want to show in this video, and that’s opposed to journalism because journalism is about the story I want to tell,” Bess said. “But with this, it’s more about what other people want.”

With this new skill of video production, Bess hopes to be able to utilize it in his future education and career. 

“I wanted to do it just to get more experience before going to college and also because I love video production and because I would totally love to do it,” Bess said. “And it ended up being great.”

Bess felt his time during his internship was an example of getting out there and getting hands-on experience even while still being in high school. 

“It was a great experience. I got to meet a lot of people and to learn a lot more about St. Louis itself,” Bess said. “Everyone at Aligned Media was super helpful and welcoming to me, and I’m so glad I did the internship.”