BACHELOR
NOVEMBER 4, 2016
THE
THE STUDENT VOICE OF WABASH COLLEGE SINCE 1908
CAL HOCKEMEYER ‘19 / PHOTO
Parker Sawyers ‘05 gives a brief talk to the community before presenting “Southside With You,” a film in which Sawyers stars as a young Barack Obama
CORNFIELDS TO HOLLYWOOD SAWYERS ‘05 REFLECTS ON HOW HIS WABASH EXPERIENCE LED HIM TO STARRING ROLE AS OBAMA BRAXTON MOORE ‘19 | STAFF WRITER • This past weekend, Parker
Sawyers ‘05 returned to Wabash to present his critically-acclaimed movie Southside With You, in which he stars as a young Barack Obama on his first date with Michelle Robinson. The film was widely accepted with positive reviews, landing a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and receiving honors at the Gotham Awards, the Maui Film Festival,
and the Sundance Film Festival. Originally hailing from Indianapolis, Sawyers was immediately impressed by the challenging environment that Wabash had to offer and, after graduating from North Central High School, he enrolled in the fall of 2001. “During my visit [to campus], I just remember it being a very serious institution,” Sawyers said. “Everyone was studying on like a Thursday afternoon. I knew
that Wabash was a place that I would graduate from… if I went to another college I was pretty sure that I would get distracted. I said to myself, ‘Four years, I just want to go to college to learn… I want to do what you are supposed to do at college.’” Sawyers was an active student around campus and was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. While it may seem like an abrupt jump from
the cornfields of Crawfordsville to the Hollywood screen, Sawyers always felt confident in his ability to make something out of himself after he left Wabash. “You always hear people telling you ‘You can go anywhere you want after Wabash,’” he said. “That idea was always implanted in my head, and the SEE CORNFIELDS, PAGE FOUR
VOLUME 109 • ISSUE 9