Sam Siner

Sam Siner took a circuitous route to Champaign-Urbana and the University of Illinois, spending a semester at Harvard University before deciding to transfer.  His first impression of Allen Hall and the Unit One community was “immediately positive,” and, right away, he started taking part in classes, clubs, and Coffeehouse events held there.  Later, he worked at the Allen front desk, co-led orientation, and became a program advisor at Unit One, which he called “one of the best experiences of [his] life.”  In that role, he redesigned the Allen Notes newsletter, took over the Coffeehouse, led the French Club, and created an arts fair (Allen-palooza), a holiday event (Allen Hall-iday), and an acapella group (Acap-allen).  After graduating in 2010 with a Psychology degree, Sam attended graduate school for higher education student affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington, and, after working in that field for some years, switched careers to pursue software development.  He noted that his leadership experience from Allen Hall has served him well in his post-graduate career.  In this interview, he discusses higher education, programming at Allen Hall, and student life.