Alumni Spotlight

GUIDED BY HIS INNER

Alumni Spotlight on Sam Popkin ‘07

BY KATELYNN CONNOLLY

Sam Popkin ’07 credits BFS with providing him with a Quaker education where the values of the five spices— Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship—were instilled in him and shaped who he is today. “Meeting for Worship has been a part of my life since Kindergarten, and its silent self-reflection was a precursor to my love of meditating,” Sam says. “Quakerism is inextricably linked to my identity, family, and life. My grandmother Shelley and my parents, aunts, uncles, and siblings all attended Quaker schools. My parents met at George School in 1980 and have been together ever since.”

After graduating from BFS, Sam continued his Quaker education at George School, where he found religious studies, including learning about Eastern philosophy and the Abrahamic faiths, especially meaningful. He also became interested in photography, becoming comfortable in both film and digital media, and winning the Elizabeth Shuman Humanitarian Award at the Phillips Mill Art Show in 2010.

It was photography that led Sam to attend Bennington College in Vermont, but he quickly realized that another great passion, music, would direct his path forward. Always able to learn songs by ear, he had

played guitar since age 11. After taking a music production class his freshman year, learning how to record and produce his own music under the tutelage of industry legends Julie Last and Scott Lehrer, he found himself wanting to learn more. This experience would lead eventually to his career as a sound engineer.

During Sam’s winter Field Work Terms at Bennington, when students are encouraged to intern off campus, he worked in his newfound field. In successive years, he worked at Lehrer’s recording studio in Manhattan, 2nd Story Sound, and producer/owner Paul Antonelli’s Rhinebeck, NY, studio, The