Saavon Smalls: How Clemson Prepared Him for His Career at Buzzfeed
Saavon Smalls graduated from Clemson University in the Spring of 2018 with a degree in English and a minor in Sociology. Today, he works at Buzzfeed in New York City as a freelance Community Editor. He helps the Buzzfeed audience members through the editing process of online quizzes as well as keeping the audience engaged in Facebook groups. He also continues as a consultant with The Tiger.
In his spare time, Smalls’s loves to explore New York City and visit the many attractions it has to offer. He is a major podcast fan and is extremely interested in music and TV, as well as celebrity news and gossip. Smalls’s ultimate career goal is to become a pop culture writer and to host his very own podcast.
At Clemson, Smalls’s was involved in a variety of clubs; he spent four years at The Tiger, three semesters in CLEMSONLiVE, and five semesters at the Pearce Center for Professional Communication, as well as being a part of the TigerMedia Advisory Board and the Student Affairs Student Advisory Board.
At The Tiger, he served as Copy Editor, Pop Culture/A&E Editor, and Assistant Editor-in-Chief before he was later appointed and led as Editor-in-Chief for four semesters.
“Without my time at Clemson, I’m not sure if my road to Buzzfeed would’ve been as smooth as it was,” says Smalls on how his experience at Clemson helped get him where he is today. “I took an internship that helped me utilize Adobe Suite products, worked in organizations that gave me leadership skills. In everything that I did, I developed my writing skills all the while being surrounded by peers/mentors that helped inspire me and give me the drive to shoot for all of my goals… I know that my time at Clemson has been one of many forces behind my current successes.”
When asked about the most memorable moment he had at Clemson, Smalls’s pointed to creating the second ever National Championship issue of The Tiger in only two days. “During my first two and a half years at Clemson, it wasn’t even on my radar,” said Smalls on the impactful task, “I’ll be the first to admit that although I’ve become a huge Clemson or college football fan, I wasn’t (and am still not) the biggest sports fan. However, being one of two leaders who pieced together a product that’ll forever be in the homes of thousands of Clemson students, alumni, fans, and community members will always mean the world to me.”
Written By: Hannah Rohaley
10/3/2018