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Sam Price — Student

Auburn University, Auburn, AL

Photo of Sam Price with his Spirit of Sustainability Award bowl.

Sam Price with his Spirit of Sustainability Award bowl.

Sam has quite a resume when it comes to his commitment to sustainability and his impact on others.  His particular talent lies in nurturing personal wellness and making the connections between environmental and personal wellbeing.

On campus he has volunteered at the community garden and was part of the Auburn Real Food Challenge, whose goal is to achieve 20% real food on Auburn’s campus by 2020.  At home Sam cultivates a vegetable garden and an extensive compost pit. He regularly supplies many in the community with vegetables and fertile soil from his compost, and helps others improve their own gardens.

He is President of the Cultural Music Society at Auburn University and brings many students and community members from different ethnicities together in their shared love of music.  Sam teaches music and dance at a fine arts program for teens and young adults with moderate to severe disabilities.   He has organized multicultural musical and artistic events in the community and provided opportunities for local artists and musicians to display their talent.  As a member of the Art of Living Yoga Club, Sam teaches free yoga and meditation classes on campus twice a week.  Through his commitment to the Cultural Music Society and the Art of Living Yoga Club, he actively engages in improving the individual and collective wellbeing of students in schools and the community through music, art and yoga.

In his personal life, he lives intentionally to limit his ecological footprint.  Last spring Sam travelled to India and taught at a school for slum-dwelling children. He shops with sustainability in mind, prioritizes the reduction, reuse and recycling of materials in that order, and uses alternative transportation whenever possible.  Every two weeks, Sam and his house-mates host a free-for-all intellectual conversation where political and environmental issues are discussed and debated over organically prepared food.  The conversations attract a varied crowd.  Ideas and knowledge are shared, participants collectively figure out what can be done to improve things, and the group agrees on what to do to make things better for themselves and others in the spirit of sustainable living.  Sam’s selfless service on behalf of his community and the wellbeing of others, along with his personal commitments to responsible living and giving exemplify what impactful living and leadership for sustainability look like.

Sam Price is a senior majoring in interdisciplinary university studies within the University College.