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Sam Shain Named Fall 2019 Patterson Fellow

A student sits on a mountaintop during a study abroad trip

Sam Shain majored in International Studies with a double major in Business. He was a Hamilton Scholar and a Park Scholar at NC State.

As a freshman at NC State, Sam served as a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and as an NC State Sustainability Steward.

He took Bob Patterson’s STS 323, World Population and Food Prospects, in his third semester at NC State. He did okay, and earned an A+.

As a sophomore, he organized a Student Giving Day at NC State, served one year as the first-ever Director of Student Philanthropy (e.g., NC State Student Government’s representative on the NC State Foundation Board) and was Director of the Park Scholars’ Philanthropy Council during his sophomore year.

Sam volunteered two years for the Food Recovery Network, packaging leftover foods from NC State’s and University Towers’ dining halls, and donated them to the Raleigh Rescue Mission.

He was a project supervisor with Amigos de las Americas in Coclé, Panama in 2018, working on their environmental sustainability initiatives .

Sam was a 2019 Social Innovation Fellow with StartingBloc, an organization that brings together leaders and innovators from different sectors to “craft a future that works for all beings.” He served as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant for Dr. Cari Keller’s Introduction to Entrepreneurship class.

And he completed a 12-week internship in summer 2019 with Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus’ think tank in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he supported research on the challenges facing Social Business, focusing on poverty alleviation & environmental sustainability.

After graduation, Sam will split his time between the microlending nonprofit Kiva (Loans that Change Lives) and a research position at Stanford University.