Student showcase

Sam French

Sam became involved in the Royal Society through attending the Rotary National Science and Technology Forum, affectionately known as ‘Geek Camp’ in 2007. Here he made many other like-minded friends, and he is currently catching up with many of them in Dunedin while at the University of Otago. While at the Rotary Forum, Sam also met Professor John Buckeridge, Head of the School of Engineering at RMIT University in Melbourne, an international authority on ethics and bioethics, and also an old boy of Sam’s school, Rathkeale College in Masterton. Prof Buckeridge is an inspiration to Sam by showing that someone from small town New Zealand can be a world leader in their academic field. 

Coming from rural Wairarapa, Sam boarded at Rathkeale College in Masterton for five years, becoming a School Prefect in his final year. Sam was also a member of the elite choir ‘Viva Camerata’, the barbershop group ‘Capella’, and goalkeeper for the 1^st XI Hockey Team. One achievement Sam is proud of is convincing the principal to resurrect the position of ‘Academic Prefect’ for 2008, to provide students with a role model in the academic sphere of school life.

Having studied NCEA Level 3 Chemistry and History of Art a year ahead, Sam was able to take Level 3 Biology, Physics, English, Calculus and Statistics, bringing his total count of Level 3 subjects to seven. Sam attained Scholarship passes in Biology and Statistics, and was Proxime Accessit of the college.

Having already mentioned attending the Rotary Forum, Sam also attended the APEC ‘Voices of Tomorrow’ conference in Wellington, where he shared a room with one of last month’s profilees, Adam Goodall. This was an interesting experience for Sam, as it was largely attended by economics students, aiming to go into business or international trade relations. However, Sam especially enjoyed meeting Chief Justice Sian Elias at Government House. Sam also attended the Wellington Model United Nations, where he had to represent North Korea, a task that made him unpopular with the US delegate!

This year Sam is studying the interesting combination of Science and Law, which draws some strange looks from his fellow students. Having originally planned to study First Year Health Science, he decided he also wanted to use his English/History of Art and arguing skills, so he took two papers out of the Health Science program and inserted First Year Law. 

Sam aims to study Medical Law and Ethics in his Law degree, and switch his BSc to a Bachelor of Biomedical Science majoring in Human Reproduction and Development, and perhaps do further study in Bioethics, which he has an interest in, having gained an Excellence grade in his Level 3 English presentation on basic bioethics and stem cell technology, attended bioethics seminars in Wellington, and was also the youngest person to be invited to attend a Te Toi Taio: New Zealand Bioethics Council framing exercise on the ethics of Prebirth testing of foetuses for genetic defects. Sam realises his area of study is quite specific, and that there may not be a demand for it in New Zealand currently, but he believes that with the pace science is currently developing, there will be an increased need for those with an understanding of science, ethics and the law.