Meet FSU Trailblazer Frances Sasport

By Alexis Frankel on October 22, 2016

Alexis Frankel

According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary a trailblazer at its simplest term is, “ a person who marks or prepares a trail through a forest or field for other people to follow.”

This is description is almost synonymous with Frances Sasport. Through her constant drive to advance in both her educational and occupational pursuits, she blazes a trail that inspires people (myself included) to travel down.

Q: Where is your hometown?

FS:  It’s a weird story: I was born in Pensacola, but I was raised a good portion of my childhood in Alabama right across the state line until I went into eighth grade … I guess Pensacola would be my main hometown. In Alabama there were not many extracurricular activities. You could do girl scouts, you could do cheerleading, but that was too expensive. I would spend most of my afternoons going home, watching TV, and spending time in my room.

I went to Pensacola my eighth grade year and not only was it a culture shock (even though it was only 30 minutes away), it was in a different area that had a lot of opportunities. That’s where I started getting into chorus and when I went into high school, marching band. That kind of brought me to my interest in music.

Q: What’s your major?

FS: I am double majoring in humanities and editing, writing, and media (EWM). In humanities we have three concentrations. My primary being communications, my secondary being music history, and my tertiary being dance.

Q: What year of school are you in?

FS: I am a fourth year, a senior.

Q: Why did you pick your major?

FS: Well with humanities I was really conflicted with what direction I wanted to go in as far as my career interests. Humanities allowed me to dip my toes into all three majors without having to stress out about all [of them]. Then with EWM I have always had a slight interest in writing but never felt competent enough in my ability to write to ever make it into my career, but it sparked my interest in the last sixth months as I was in the midst of trying to figure out when to graduate. I decided I could pick up a shorter major and have two degrees.

Q: What is your favorite thing about FSU?

FS: My favorite thing about FSU is all of the opportunities that it has. It doesn’t matter what interests you. You can come into FSU with no particular interest or direction and can find your place. It offers so many different majors and it offers so many different organizations that you can be a part of.

Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?

FS: I have really been getting into trying to teach myself how to produce beats on Ableton. I have a mini keyboard that I recently bought online. I have been sitting down, teaching myself scales when I can on the keyboard and then just kind of pressing record, letting myself go wherever the feeling takes me.

Other than that, I spend my time watching very silly shows on Netflix. I am re-watching Friends for like the twentieth time right now. I love watching the character development. It’s nice to mindlessly watch something that you have already seen.

Q: How would you describe yourself?

FS: Anxious, but controlled. I am very willing and very passionate (almost too passionate). I just have a strong will to constantly learn and better myself. I do not know quality that would be.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

FS: In 10 years I will be almost 32. I hope to be in a big city whether it be Austin, Miami, somewhere in California, New York, or Atlanta. I want to be in a populated city either working for Adult Swim, which is the end all, be all dream job, or doing production for either a label, a broadcasting company, or a radio station. I want to be in either music or TV.

Q: What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment during your time at FSU?

FS:  It’s between becoming program director [of FSU’s radio station, WVFS V89 ] and recently becoming a sound engineer. I wouldn’t have gotten this sound engineer job had I not been involved with V89 to the point that I am at now, because the person that is my supervisor at the sound engineer job came to me and said I can see you have a desire to learn about production and see how sounds works. I can tell you would do a good job.

Q: If you could go back and change something in your time at FSU, would you? If so, what would you change?

FS: While I don’t necessarily regret too much of anything that’s happened at FSU, I would’ve changed the way I went about living with some of my best friends. I feel like I was just so set in my ways.

Q: You are an extremely busy lady. How do you manage time for everything and have a social life?

FS: I keep a planner; I am very in tune with my planner. I am constantly updating it … I actually somehow still manage to get at least six hours of sleep every night. I’m a grandma, if I can go to sleep at 12, oh I am stoked. I just thrive off of structured chaos.

Q: What makes you want to work with Adult Swim specifically?

FS: I have been watching Adult Swim since before I was even allowed to. My mom, my dad, my sister and I lived in this really small townhouse in Pensacola when I was 5 or 6. I would sneak down there, just flip through the channels for a while … until I felt like [my parents] were asleep and then I would put it on Adult Swim to watch Robot Chicken and Aqua Team Hunger Force.

Q: How did you find your niche?

FS: I ended up going to the V89 cattle call before Club Downunder’s and immediately just fell in love. It was an overwhelming wave of emotional. I was like I don’t know what I can do here, but I want to try to do anything I can because I feel like [V89] is just the place for me.

Q: How do you stay motivated?

FS: I am constantly motivated by other people. I love looking into someone and who they are as a person and what they are passionate about. It doesn’t inspire me to be passionate about what they’re passionate about … It instills in me this desire to find out what I am passionate about. One of my biggest fears is to have a 9-5, desk job where I am going to the same places, doing the same things everyday Monday through Friday and spending my weekends either getting really intoxicated or trying to relieve stress from the week because of my monotonous job. Half of my success is because I feel like I surround myself with such great people.

Q: Is there anything you would like to add that I might not have thought to ask you?

FS: I love you. That is all.

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