Sam Richardson: Journalist, Anchor, reporter, and editor

Personal Statement:

Most first period classes begin in silence, with students half awake and glued to our phones. Not Mr. Mitchell’s. He would start class by posing a “question of the day” for us to discuss in groups, like, “If you could revisit any time in history, where would you go?” The conversations that resulted set the tone for class. Participation surged on the days we had history first thing in the morning, and I felt more energized for my day.

Mr. Mitchell always said he was “putting the human back in humanities,” and although it took me months to figure out what that meant to me, I learned in that class that talking was not just an activity I enjoyed, it was essential to my being.

I began high school deeply connected to sports, but my relationship with them changed quickly. Over the course of a few years, I underwent three knee surgeries, two during COVID, and another after tearing my right patellar tendon for the second time in my sophomore year, just after finally returning to football and basketball. Sports had always been my whole world since I was a kid, but just like that, I was on the sidelines. I could not play, but there was no way I was going to stop being involved. I still wanted to feel the energy and emotion with my teammates at every game.

That is when journalism became more than just an activity for me. It became an outlet and a passion.

When I first started reporting for The Masco Messenger, I was mainly writing Masco sports articles, recapping the games. But then I began capturing the voices and personalities beyond the headlines. I launched a weekly fall article called The Chieftain Spotlight. This segment highlighted not Masco’s best athletes, but rather athletes who may not have been known around the state, yet still deserved to have their stories heard and their names recognized. I worked closely with each player to highlight their contributions and made sure their accomplishments and stories did not go untold. I quickly realized that what I loved most was not just writing, it was interpersonal exchange. It was making people feel noticed.

That same mindset carried over into ScoGameDay and the ScoAthletes social media platform, where I help run Masco’s student-led sports coverage. Through hype videos, interviews, game-day graphics, and live updates, I found new ways to tell stories visually and in real time. Journalism was no longer just about reporting what happened, but about bringing people into the moment.

I also began calling in every Masco football and basketball game to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Salem News, delivering final scores and key statistics. Seeing those blurbs published taught me that accuracy and clarity matter, big time. I now had the trust of not only the editors of those papers, but the entire readership. My statistics and game analysis were going public for everyone to see.

Hearing people’s stories and shaping them into something others could read became my favorite part of being a journalist and the reason I want to carry my passion for communication into college. Mr. Mitchell has his own way of putting the human back in humanities. This is mine.