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Alumni

Sam Welch


Class of: 2022
Hometown: Naperville, Illinois
School: School of Engineering
Major(s): Computer Science and Applied Mathematics
Minors(s): Engineering Management

Sam first got involved with Special Spaces during his sophomore year of High School. Special Spaces is a nationwide organization that creates dream bedrooms for children with cancer. With the help of the Illinois director for Special Spaces, he started a Special Spaces Club at his school, focusing primarily on fundraising and volunteer coordination. Sam felt compelled to continue his involvement with Special Spaces while at Vanderbilt, so he partnered with the organization once again for his Ingram Summer Service Project in 2020. In the wake of COVID-19, Sam led the effort to pivot Special Spaces from in-person room makeovers. He collaborated with the National Director of Development to create “Bedroom in a Box,” a virtual makeover process from start to finish. All items are delivered to the family's house in one coordinated, socially-distant reveal. Sam worked with the Illinois Chapter to pilot this process by providing six families with “Bedroom in a Box” makeovers during the summer, creating an alternative to in-person makeovers released nationwide in September 2020.  

  

In his first year at Vanderbilt, Sam set out to find organizations on and off campus where he could develop personal, long-term relationships in the community. Sam served as an Ambassadore for Next Steps, volunteering as a peer mentor and role model for Vanderbilt students with intellectual disabilities. Having a brother with autism made Sam aware of the many challenges people with developmental disabilities face. ACEing Autism was a natural fit, allowing Sam to help participants develop their social communication skills while improving motor skills through tennis. During his sophomore year, Sam started working with Change++, an organization that provides Nashville nonprofits with technical resources and software capabilities. He was placed on a project team that created an online version of the “Game of Rent,” which seeks to educate players about the difficulties of finding affordable housing in larger cities around the United States. In his junior year, Sam wanted to get more involved with Change++. He took on the role of Product Manager for The Farmlink Project, an organization that was created at the start of the pandemic to connect farms with excess produce to food banks in need. His project team created an automated data analysis and visualization tool that will be utilized by Farmlink team members and volunteers. The tool combines USDA produce pricing data and previous Farmlink transactions to inform price estimates for excess produce.


Outside of service, Sam is on the executive board of the club baseball team and leads the student section for football, basketball, baseball, and soccer games as a Vanderbilt Mic Man.  Sam is extremely grateful for the Ingram Scholarship Program, which surrounds him with motivated, collaborative, and inspiring people. He hopes to continue to take advantage of the opportunities presented to him to expand his academic, service, and professional networks within Nashville and beyond.