Sam graduated from Drake University in May of 2011 with bachelor's degrees in Journalism and Mass Communication (Magazines) and International Relations (with a Certificate of Language and Culture). Raised in Bangkok, Thailand, Sam has also spent time in the U.S., Japan, and New Zealand, and has travelled to many countries throughout Asia. She has strong interests in uncovering rudimentary causes of conflicts around the world—especially cultural and environmental—as increasing number of people are vying for the world's dwindling resources. At Drake, Sam was a senior editor of Think—a national award-winning student magazine that covered global stories through a Midwest perspective. She has interned for Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, Lifestyle and Travel, and a national newspaper Matichon in Bangkok. Her time at Travel+Leisure included work with the digital media manager on content production focusing on SEO and website content management as well as maintaining regular updates on Twitter and Facebook. Sam is bilingual in Thai and English and an intermediate speaker of Japanese. She has recently begun learning Mandarin Chinese as well.