I’m Sam and I’m very excited to be part of Bike & Build this coming summer. I’m originally from Chicago and I’ll be graduating from Stanford University this June.
I’m a Midwesterner at heart (a Bears and Cubs fan for life), but I’ve spent most of my recent years in California, splitting time between school near San Francisco and summers in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. I love the outdoors and have been an avid backpacker and canoeist since childhood. I picked up road biking my sophomore year in college, and quickly grew to love it. The friend who helped me buy my first bike regaled me from out first ride with stories of his cross-country bike trip, and I’ve aspired to do the same ever since.
In addition to living in Chicago and California, I spent a term studying in Moscow in 2008. I enjoy traveling a great deal and I hope to have a career that involves working overseas, possibly as a diplomat. I’m currently studying international relations and math. I speak some Russian and a little bit of Spanish, but I hope to learn more languages over the next couple years. I’ve worked at a few non-profits and businesses, but by the far the coolest job I’ve had – and the only one where wearing a shirt was optional - has been teaching waterskiing and wakeboarding at a camp near Lake Tahoe.
I’m been involved with multiple community service initiatives in college. I’ve tutored Spanish-speaking middle-schoolers since my freshman year and I now organize the community service activities of my fraternity. I also run an organization that brings together American and Russian university students interested in exploring foreign policy.
Affordable housing is a part of community service that I find particularly interesting. Coming from Chicago, where the city has repeatedly failed to provide safe and sufficient affordable housing to the neediest families, I have long been aware of this problem and have been involved with Habitat for Humanity since high school.
I’m extremely excited about this summer’s trip; I can’t wait to see new parts of the country, get to know my fellow riders, and help raise awareness of the nation’s affordable housing problem.
