{"id":9258,"date":"2021-03-26T16:39:13","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T16:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2021\/04\/29\/sammy-clough-20-jumps-into-education-and-coaching-with-both-feet\/"},"modified":"2022-09-07T15:39:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T19:39:31","slug":"sammy-clough-20-jumps-into-education-and-coaching-with-both-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/sammy-clough-20-jumps-into-education-and-coaching-with-both-feet\/","title":{"rendered":"Sammy Clough \u201920 jumps into education and coaching with both feet"},"content":{"rendered":"

He didn\u2019t have teaching or coaching experience. But \u00a0Sammy Clough \u201920, a communication studies graduate, landed a position doing both at Augusta Christian Schools<\/a> in Georgia in the same year COVID-19 upended just about every industry.<\/p>\n

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Middle school students in Clough’s digital communications class.<\/p><\/div>\n

At ACS, Clough teaches digital media communications to sixth- through eigth-graders and leads students in producing a twice-weekly news program, \u201cLions Den News,\u201d where students become executive producers, cameramen and women, lighting experts, new anchors and scriptwriters.<\/p>\n

Clough\u2019s segue into teaching developed organically. \u201cI never thought I was going to be a teacher,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He was enjoying his communications coursework at Furman, but as a Young Life leader at Greenville\u2019s Eastside High all four years at the university, he wasn\u2019t quite ready to give up working with younger kids. That\u2019s when he started applying to various private Christian schools where he could secure teacher certification on the job.<\/p>\n

He arrived at ACS after staff members there took a second look at his credentials. He had originally interviewed for a Bible teacher position.<\/p>\n

This past May, shortly before graduation, Clough received a follow-up call from the school at his home in Suwanee, Georgia. Staff at ACS said they thought he\u2019d be perfect for teaching a middle school computer class. And what excited him most about the prospect was the cart blanche ACS gave him for creating the course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat fired me up right away because I took broadcast communication my freshman year with (Associate Professor of Communication Studies) John Armstrong<\/a>, and I absolutely loved it, and later I was a teaching assistant for him for the same class,\u201d Clough said.<\/p>\n

After a successful interview and teaching job in hand, Clough began piecing the class together. He\u00a0decided he wanted to do a combination of digicom \u2013 digital communications \u2013 and broadcast communication.<\/p>\n

The summer before in-person teaching began at ACS, Clough reviewed class structure and content with his mentor, Armstrong, who is now retired. \u201cI honestly stole a lot of his ideas and have been using those in my class this semester,” said Clough.<\/p>\n

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Sammy Clough ’20.<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the challenges in creating the course was scaling a college-level class for secondary education, when kids are often just learning to sign into their email for the first time, Clough said.<\/p>\n

After laying the groundwork for the course, Clough spent the fall semester teaching kids about various media outlets, experimenting with blog writing, podcasting and producing fun, YouTube-worthy videos. Then he introduced them to Lions Den News, where students take on a new job description every week to produce two news shows for broadcasting at school and on YouTube.<\/p>\n

But Clough is imparting more than broadcast journalism skills. He\u2019s shaping young lives on a deeper level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to teach them how to communicate in a workplace. There\u2019s a lot of accountability among them \u2013 they want the product to be good,” he said. “So they\u2019re learning about personal responsibility and how their individual choices affect other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from instilling accountability, the class has also helped students understand who they are and fostered a sense of belonging.<\/p>\n

Clough remembered one girl who\u00a0came to him early on in the semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was really in her shell, lacked confidence, and told me she didn\u2019t feel like she belonged,” he said.<\/p>\n