Background

The 2003 NCAA champ at 800 meters, Sam Burley came to the Ivy League from the West. Until second grade, he lived on a ranch in Montana with his parents, brother and sister, an aunt and uncle, two cousins and his grandparents. They raised cattle, pigs, sheep, turkeys, chickens, “whatever would be profitable,” says Sam, looking back. “In my mind it’s like paradise, but then I wasn’t baling hay at 6 in the morning.” In third grade, Sam and his family moved to Cheyenne, where he ended up attending the same high school as John Godina, the Olympic shot-put medalist and discus thrower.

An avid reader who once thought he would become an author (“but I read so much that I can recognize good writing, and I can recognize that mine isn’t very good”), Sam spends a lot of his spare time in airports and hotels with a book in hand. He recently completed his masters degree in environmental studies, and is considering an eventual career in environmental law.