When freelance photographer, Sam Negen, graduated from Spring Lake High School in 2019, he had no idea what opportunities were about to come from this chapter in his life. Sam Negen is planning to pursue a career in freelance adventure photography as well as filmmaking. Sam is currently studying photography at Montana State University, but is a firm believer that education can take many paths and college isn’t always the right option for everyone. As Sam travels for his job as a photographer, he states that he has been lucky enough to travel to some amazing places on this earth to work on films and shoot photographs. He wants to travel to more and more places to continue pushing himself out of his comfort zone and continue creating more and more interesting photos.

Sam has been able to spend two months mountaineering in India on the Himalayan range during his gap year after high school. He explains how it was an incredibly valuable experience that has really shaped him into the person he is today and it has taught him so much. He says that it is crazy how he took such a leap of faith to do something so conventional after high school. But coming from that experience, he says he urges every student to put themselves in a similar situation to push themselves far out of their comfort zones. Sam believes that there is so much value in these spaces. Sam also has different hobbies and activities that he likes to do outside of school and his photography. He likes to ski, bike, and climb–something that a lot of people who go to Montana State enjoy. He also believes that Spring Lake has taught him many valuable life lessons. He believes that Spring Lake has strongly taught him about the value of community. He believes that he is incredibly privileged to live here and it was this community as well as his family that built him into who he is today. Sam believes that it is now our duty to use this privilege and responsibility that he earned to improve this community as well as whatever community we find ourselves in later in life.