Before graduating with a B.A. in Social Work from the University of Washington in 2011, Samuel interned as a probation counselor and mathematics tutor within the King County Juvenile Detention Center. This experience gave Samuel a vivid, personal look into the achievement gap expressed across lines of geography, income, and race, and ultimately inspired him to take a job teaching mathematics at a charter high school in Kansas City following graduation. After spending 5 years teaching courses ranging from Algebra 1 to AP Calculus, Samuel remains committed to improving access to high quality public education as a second year student in the Master of Public Policy and Master of Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies joint degree program. In addition to his coursework this past year, Samuel supported the John Gardner Center as a research assistant studying the impact of cross-sector collaborations as a strategy to improve education, health, and employment outcomes for youth in East Palo Alto, California. Over the summer, he will be supporting a small team from Teach For America to establish a regional teacher training program for new teachers in Miami, FL. In his spare time, he enjoys playing sports and jamming on his guitar. His policy interests remain broad and include school choice, teacher quality and evaluation, leveraging big data to inform practice, and STEM education.