The typical high school student may have jobs that consist of manual labor, food service, and delivery driving. These jobs, of course, require no educational degrees or experience and are often quite tedious and low paying.

Going to high school gives students the opportunity to eventually leave these jobs behind for future, more serious careers that require stricter qualifications. However, not all students are satisfied with waiting for their hard work to pay off, working unbearably boring jobs in the meantime. Some students begin to create lifelong careers while still in school.

One particularly interesting example of this is Elder senior Sam Jones and his media company. Sam began his company, called SMJ Media, by creating highlight videos for Elder teams his junior year, eventually branching out to other schools as well. In the beginning, he just needed to find something to do after quitting football and basketball, but he ended up creating a career.

“I wasn’t playing sports anymore,” said Sam, “but I always had a passion for movies, and, growing up, I always wanted to be a filmmaker, so I thought: What would an athlete want?”

Most athletes would probably, maybe reluctantly, agree that at some point they have imagined a highlight video consisting of their best plays, especially in high school. We all grew up watching highlights of professional athletes, so when a student comes around saying he’ll make our high school team a video of our own, how could we say no?

But to get the equipment needed to pull off high level, professional grade sports media, Sam needed assistance. Luckily, he attends Elder. 

“I told Mr. Rogers that I wanted to do some sport highlight videos and mixtapes,” Sam said, “So he hooked me up with a gimbal, which is a stabilizer, and a really nice camera from the ENN room.”

However, even with his state-of-the-art equipment, Sam was not at first experienced in camera work and video editing, so it was a slow start. Elder soccer was the first video, he said, and you can tell because every highlight is in slow motion, but obviously I have progressed since then.

His progression has been noticeable to the students of Elder who watch his videos regularly at pep rallies and on Instagram, but it has also been noticed by other schools and teams.

“Other schools usually come to me,” he said, “they ask me to do something for them, and I tell them to pay up.”

The ability to control one’s own hours and pay is a luxury that most people may never experience, but Sam is already self-employed while still in high school.

“I’ve made videos and taken pictures for St. Ursula and Seton, specifically their soccer and volleyball teams,” Sam said, “usually the players come to me, which is nice because they’ve noticed my work and trust me.”

But at Elder games, I’m just expected there, Sam said, I go out to any sport I can to record and take pictures for free.

Students at Elder are lucky this year to have someone like Sam Jones as he has made some game day posts for Elder’s Instagram as well as commitment posts for athletes continuing to the next level, showcasing his newly learned graphic design and photo editing skills. Sam has provided a new sense of excitement to sporting events with his videos and pictures, but no one wonders how much work is required for one of these videos. 

“The longest I ever spent on a video is fifteen hours,” he said, “I split it up though, obviously.”

Even with all the work he must do to maintain the quality of his productions, Sam still continues to pump out video after video for both Elder teams and other school’s teams. Sam’s early experience and work ethic will give him a great advantage as he continues to grow in his career.

I will be majoring in digital media collaborations at the University of Cincinnati, he said, I want to stay in Cincinnati for the next four years to continue making connections, but I want to move away later to see the world and create media for larger teams.

Sam is an inspiring story for other students, showing that it’s never too early to start building a career. By taking initiative and trying something new, Sam has created a job for himself that he is passionate about, a job that he can pursue for the rest of his life.