Sam Farmer may come from a small town, but he has big thoughts and big dreams—the senior at Winnebago High School is well on his way to achieving them. "I'm always able to motivate myself to do anything," he said.
As a junior, he had the highest GPA in the school and earned the highest ACT in school history, beating the previous record by two points. He's on the Quiz Bowl team which achieved the highest finish in school history. He's played the lead roles in the last two school drama productions. He mentors and tutors his fellow classmates. He's on Winnebago's robotics team that started last last year and is still building up to being competitive.
"There isn't much in the way of physics and engineering activities I can participate in around the place I live though, so I spend a lot of time reading articles and studies done by current physicists who are working on unifying different theories within the fields of physics, chemistry and astronomy. Along with that I enjoy following major technology-based companies like Tesla, SpaceX, DeepMind and Boston Dynamics to see what their plans are to change the world.
"I enjoy learning in general and specifically learning about what people are doing to change society right now and how they plan for a future in the universe for the human race.
"I want to say that I would like go into some type of engineering or astrophysics major, but ultimately I feel the need to get into politics to play as an advocate for science, technology and people who can stop things like climate change and constant turmoil between countries over energy, food, resources and even social differences, which means I likely need to pursue a pre-law or business major."
Sam is in the first cohort of Winnebago NCPA scholars that began at the university in the fall of 2019. Since he already knows his way around Nebraska's campus thanks to the NCPA camps and activities he's attended there, he's glad he knows what to expect and looks forward to college.
