Sam Brenner was born on March 15th, 1991 in Boston, Massachusetts. He has lived in Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury and will be moving to Collegeville, Pennsylvania in August of 2009 to attend Ursinus College, where he intends to study political science and economics. After college, Sam plans on attending law school and pursuing a career in either education or public policy.
Sam’s interest in political science and economics have been strongly influenced by his parents, David and Katy, who have always stressed to him the importance of public service. David was a union organizer for many years and attended law school at Northeastern University. After law school, he began working for the Segal Company, consulting with unions on collective bargaining agreements, particularly healthcare and pension plans. Discussing these issues like healthcare plans with his father has always been something Sam enjoys and has led to Sam’s particular interest in America’s woeful healthcare system, which he one day plans on fixing.
Sam’s mother Katy has enjoyed a career in journalism working for WBUR, WBCN, WHDH-TV and others. She has always impressed upon Sam the importance of education and being well informed and as a result Sam has always had an interest in current events and is an avid reader.
As a child, Sam loved sports; he played everything he possibly could. He played soccer, baseball, judo, football and hockey before entering Boston Latin in the 7th grade where he begun to wrestle. Sam was a varsity wrestler by the eighth grade and began wrestling all year round. By the tenth grade, Sam was traveling all across the east coast attending camps and tournaments and training with some of the best wrestlers in the country.
During the school year, Sam would travel to Lowell three or four times a week to train at the Doughboy Wrestling Club in addition to training with the Harvard University Wrestling team and various wrestling clubs around the city. In 2008, Sam spent the summer traveling around the country wrestling with the Massachusetts National Team and competing at Junior Freestyle National Tournament in Fargo, North Dakota.
Before that summer, Sam had spent his previous summer vacations at Camp Avoda in Middleboro, Massachusetts. At Camp Avoda, Sam was a camper for six summers where he enjoyed sports, canoeing, sailing and hanging out with his friends. Some of Sam’s greatest childhood memories are from Camp Avoda and as a counselor he thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to give back and share the fun of the camp with younger campers.
During the school year, Sam attended the Curley School in Jamaica Plain for kindergarten and first grade before switching to the Rashi School in Newton. The Rashi School was a small school for Jewish children and is where Sam developed his strong Jewish identity, which he still has to this day. After leaving the Rashi School to attend Boston Latin School in 7th grade, he continued his Jewish Studies at Prozdor Hebrew High School on Sunday mornings.
In his years at Boston Latin, Sam participated in a number of extracurricular activities including EPIIC Inquiry, where Sam had the opportunity to study countries around the world and engage in debates at a yearly simulation where he would represent a country with other high schoolers around the country.
This summer Sam is working at the Commonwealth Compact at UMass Boston under Bob Turner, helping to improve Massachusetts’s reputation in regards to people of color.