Noah James ’25 and Ethan Sample ’25 have received Princeton University’s Daniel M. Sachs Class of 1960 Graduating Scholarship, an award for students broadly interested in public affairs. James received the The Sachs Scholarship at Worcester College, which funds two years of study at Worcester College at the University of Oxford. Sample received the Sachs Global Scholarship, which funds one to two years of an independent program of study or study at a foreign institution. Additionally, Farzana Salik, a student at Oxford, received the Sachs Visiting Scholarship, which enables recipients from Worcester College to study for one year at the Princeton Graduate School.
James, who is from Amesbury, Mass., is a School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) major. He is also earning minors in both History and the Practice of Diplomacy as well as Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. At Oxford, he plans to pursue a master’s in Criminology and Criminal Justice and a master’s in Global Governance and Diplomacy, centering his research on “how national and international justice systems handle mass atrocities, both in empowering conflict-affected communities and holding perpetrators of grave international crimes accountable.” James credited Princeton for the opportunities he was able to have as an undergraduate.
“Princeton has allowed me to gain hands-on experience as an undergraduate in ways I’d never dreamed of,” James wrote to the ‘Prince.’ “The summer after my sophomore year, I had the chance to work at the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict … I had a similar experience this past summer as a SINSI [Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative] fellow at the State Department’s Bureau of Conflict & Stabilization Operations.”
Outside of the classroom, he has volunteered with the Princeton Asylum Project and has previously served as the executive director of Coffee Club. James’ senior thesis focuses on the Lundin Oil trial in Sweden, which centers on alleged war crimes in Sudan.
James hopes to eventually pursue a career “in international justice to aid victims of atrocity crimes and uphold human rights in some of the world’s most challenging contexts.”
Sample, who is from Alexandria, Va., is a Chemical and Biological Engineering major. He will spend the next year in Japan conducting research under Nobuyasu Koga, a professor at Osaka University’s Institute for Protein Research. Sample is writing his senior thesis on TDP-43, the protein whose dysregulation is responsible for several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease and ALS.
Sample was initially drawn to Princeton partly because of the opportunity to build close relationships with faculty members.
“I went to a pretty large public high school in the city in Virginia … it was really hard to try to get access to labs and scientific research and that type of mentorship. So I’ve been really thankful that, literally from day one of arriving on campus, I’ve had access to that,” he said.
He also started learning Japanese at Princeton in his junior year after completing his major requirements, describing his language journey as “circuitous.”
“I chose Japanese for a couple reasons. For one, there’s a strong biotechnology connection between the United States and Japan, so career-wise it made sense. Also, the structure of the language I find very interesting. I want to read literature in another language, and there are some Japanese authors [who] I want to understand… in their original form.”
During his time at Princeton, Sample also co-founded the Princeton Biotechnology Group, which, according to their website, aims to “equip Princeton students from all backgrounds with the knowledge, resources and skills to become future leaders in biotech and to bridge the gap between Princeton academia and industry.”
In the future, Sample hopes to obtain a Ph.D. He is currently interested in eventually working at a biotechnology startup to take scientific innovations and apply them in a therapeutic context. During his time as a Sachs scholar, he wishes to improve his Japanese and learn about international collaboration across borders.
“I want to learn how to better leverage intercultural teams with diverse experiences and different strengths to develop useful technologies for people,” he said.
Both James and Sample expressed gratitude for their friends, mentors, and family for their support.
“[After I found out], I took a long walk around campus and just felt so much gratitude for all of my professors, mentors, friends, and family who have made it possible for me to excel at Princeton in ways I’d never imagined possible,” James wrote.
“I just felt very grateful for all the support that I have from my family, from my mentors, from my friends, [and] the community around me that has enabled me to work on what I’m interested in and what I think can hopefully help other people,” Sample said.
Christopher Bao is a head News editor for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Princeton, N.J. and typically covers town politics and life.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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