Sam Freeman – Back to the Future

Communication Major
Psychology Minor
Class of 2024
Plays Basketball

“Just make sure you take full advantage of life because it’s short and you must seize the day while you can. That’s what has encouraged me, it is one of the biggest parts that gets me through the day. We’re not going to be here forever so you might as well go for that job opportunity, try something new, make new friends, start that business, just take risks and seize the day.”

*Transcript Was Computer Generated*

so sam thank you so much for agreeing to

be part of our project um first of all

introduce yourself

so um

my name is sam sam freeman my full name

is sammy what i eat

i’m 21 years old i’m from dallas texas

and um

basically i

play basketball here for the university

of pacific

and i feel like it was one of the best

choices i made college-wise and for my

athletics-wise uh individually for my uh

for my game to grow as well as my

academics to grow

um just because it feels like a home

environment but um i mean you know i’m

really more of an open book so i mean i

can really just here and talk to you

about everything all day so i mean

if if that was the case you know

i could just get into a little story but

that’s pretty much base that’s like

basically like the surface of who i am

oh yeah feel free to talk what so your

mate what’s your major

uh i’m majoring in i used to major in uh

psychology but i just recently changed

it over to communications

oh cool

and i wanna mind your uh minor in uh

philosophy

whoa wow

so when’s your glass when do you hope to

graduate

uh uh i hope to graduate in 20 of 2023

which is actually like my graduating

year but since the covet since like we

got our we got a year back for

basketball so we kind of like

take uh we can take more uh extra class

for

um our extra year if we play basketball

technically i was supposed to graduate

in 2023 but now um i’m on track to

graduate 2024. okay cool

that’s so cool all right then so how did

you i mean you’re all the way from

dallas texas so tell me how did you find

out about uop

um well actually it was like it’s a

pretty uh

pretty long process it was kind of like

um when i came from dallas i went to

school in minnesota for two years and

then i had transferred from there to

here

but um the history behind it is like our

head coach right now he’s like he’s my

my dad’s best friend so he’s like more

like a godfather to me so he’s kind of

like one of my father figures so i mean

he like really kind of just told me how

like he told me everything like how you

do my dad and everything and we just

kind of just linked you kind of just

linked up after that and um

i kind of just basically found my way in

here he uh gave me an offer and i came

here and

like that was a really good decision for

me at the time

that was definitely so are you

first-generation college student or

uh both of my parents went to college so

my dad actually met him in college they

were called as roommates actually and

then my mom was um my mom was with my

dad at the time so they all three just

knew each other it was like all close

so would you say that you were expected

to go to college then because of that

i would say

i was uh for my for my mom for sure i

was expected to go to college for my mom

um she definitely wanted me to get a any

kind of degree any some way somehow just

because of like

like i like how i am or like basically

my background culture she’s like this is

like weird school family to be honest

like all of my my grandma my aunties

they all went to college everybody went

to college so yeah that’s kind of

expected

right it’s in your jeans really it’s in

your jeans i like that okay then so

um i like that idea though because

that’s just encouraging you to keep the

legacy going really the next generation

um as an african-american male

have you experienced on this particular

campus

any biases

you know whether student or faculty you

know

and if you haven’t then you haven’t you

know you know

i don’t i wouldn’t say i haven’t i’d

probably just say like i’ve probably

gotten used to like a lot of biases just

like being like where i’m from and

dallas was like majority black

and then moving out of that uh moving

out of there and going like to minnesota

where it’s like you know it’s diverse

but it’s majority caucasian so it’s kind

of like i kind of had the best of like

both worlds and like lack of better

terms i kind of like had the black

experience now like

the caucasian experience and then coming

over here it’s kind of like it’s a

little bit there’s a little bit diverse

but like i mean at the same time i feel

like i was not really stereotyping like

nobody’s really stereotyping me i just

feel like that’s just kind of like how

people are at this point so kind of like

accepting a little bit okay i understand

that you’re saying so is it more like

microaggressions rather than out and out

do you think yeah yeah like my like yeah

microaggression that’s a good word for

microaggression just you know i’m kind

of like i’m kind of tall you know i’m i

have dressed and i’m you know i’m black

so i mean

definitely it’s been like just just a

few little you know experiences but like

nothing really just out of the ordinary

where it’s like it’s an issue or

anything just kind of expect it right so

how do you navigate that then i mean you

say you expect it but

how do you navigate through it

i mean i just told them like like my

character is bigger than my color you

know i’m more of like a like i’m more of

like a people’s person to see people

like want to say that i mean

if anybody can anybody would see me and

just be like you know he’s kind of like

he’s tall he’s probably just kind of

tough you know but like if you get to

know me you know you actually know like

i’m really just more of like a chill

laid back guy and i really just like

making smile on people’s faces that’s

all right

like i feel like i kind of compensate

that with my personality

that’s so cool that is so cool so i what

are some of the positive aspects then um

i think you did mention wanted to the

beginning but can you be a bit more

specific about you know being a student

on campus here at uop

uh specific and what um the positive

things that you’ve experienced yeah

okay yeah um

i mean

like being us being a student here for

one it’s already a blessing to be here

because we’re at such a prestigious

university so it’s like any degree out

of here is going to be worth a lot like

in the future it’s going to be very

beneficial for me in my life and my

family for one

that’s just right off the top and then

two like being an athlete here like

it’s just you know everybody like

everybody knows who you are so it’s not

really like you know you’re just kind of

floating around trying to find your

identity like you know everybody shows

you love you know we get a lot of

donators we get a lot of like like fans

coming to our games just like a lot of

like energy is a lot of good energy so i

feel like it’s just like a lot of

positive vibes here in this specific

campus

right so you mentioned before then about

the experience with covid that you can

actually extend your time a little while

to get some of the time back

so is that the same is that with

basketball is that the same with your

academic classes

no it’s so

with basketball like you you have like a

year back so like let’s say like

technically i’m supposed to be going to

my senior year right now but i’ll be a

junior in basketball but like i’ll be

taking senior classes so

i mean an extra year of school is just

be an extra year of school just like

just for my major from what i’m uh my

degree i’m chasing so i’ll have to take

an extra year of school anyway in order

to be able to like graduate with that

degree so i’ll be able to play

basketball and do school work at the

same time okay so how do you how do your

professors um how do you you know if

you’re having a issue academically let’s

say

is is a do you find that your professors

are very open and and uh accessible for

you to help you create you know through

that

whatever the issue might be

yeah oh yeah that i feel like they’re

really open just to you know just to

help help me be successful in that class

you know also with being like on the

road or i’m not really in class a lot so

they try to you know try to catch me up

a little bit fast i feel like they’re

more like in tune with me trying to be

successful in their classes that’s so

cool that’s so cool so

what would you say

to encourage any current and

specifically african-american black

african-american because we’re not all

african-american and um

you know current students and incoming

students is there anything that you

would share with them to

to help encourage them to kind of you

know get through their academic career

as it were all their

so they can achieve their major right

major matter

as like for like not all

african-americans are just students

coming to campus um well because i’m

really focusing on black

african-americans so yeah you know

because of our needs and especially as a

male as well

okay well um

i mean advice i would give them is just

the advice i would give myself you know

don’t let don’t let like the stereotypes

you know affect you you know you have to

have your positive energy illuminate

throughout anything to be honest like i

feel like that’s just what i really go

about i feel like that’s how i’ve been

getting through my days at least if like

not to say like it’s been hard or

anything just like you know just that’s

just how i am and i feel like that’s

just like more of like a

like just a positive trait for me and i

feel like that’s just it would be the

best way to move around for anybody who

would be going through something like

that right

like affecting them like that

oh cool i know that you know because

you’re athletes you are very much have a

great camaraderie teams have to really

you know connect

with each other to be able to

communicate silently on the on the

basketball court so are you involved in

any other organizations on campus at all

um to be honest i really haven’t

expanded my horizons yeah i don’t need

other like

like organizations or teams or anything

i’ve really kind of just been you know

like majority basketball to be honest

because it’s really like

like i would say it’s my first year like

actually being on a team that like feels

like a team you know like it feels like

a family so i kind of just been putting

all my time into you know making this

greater than what it can be like region

is full of potential team orders

so would you ever think then as you

progress throughout your career here

that you might you know you might think

about looking at other um organizations

whether it’s a fraternity or black

student success or anything like that

i’m definitely i’m never gonna turn down

any like any open organizations like i

feel like i’m definitely open-minded to

a lot of things so i feel like if the

opportunity presents to something i’ll

definitely take advantage of it

cool that’s cool

before we go

um i wonder do you have a quote

or something that you’ve read or someone

shared with you that you found

encouraging that you’d like to share

right now

um quote

oh that’s a lot of quotes actually i

have a few quotes

oh you can do more than one if you want

[Laughter]

yeah i mean um

you know just

i can’t really quote anything but like i

feel like you know just

make sure you take it full advantage of

life as you can because it’s really to

be honest it’s really short and you know

you have to

seize the day while you can so i feel

like that’s like more of like a quote

for me that’s but that’s like one of the

biggest plus that gets me through the

day like you know not gonna be here

alone you gotta be forever so you know

you might as well just go ahead go take

that get that job opportunity you know

go try some new things go make some new

friends you know try this business move

like you know like

just take risks yeah i like that idea

though essentially seize the day i like

that very very much yeah

you know what i want to say thank you so

much sam for taking the time uh to be

part of our project we really appreciate

it and uh thank you so much for your

time i could talk to you for longer but

i know time is there

but thank you so much i have a quick

question for you actually um

if this is cool i just want to ask like

are you are you from um where are you

from i’m from england you’re in england

okay and that’s why we’re looking at the

black experience black african-american

because you know people just assume

if you’re black you’re african-american

and you know on the campus we have

people from you know nigeria ghana etc

so there are other blacks here as well

so we’re looking at their experience as

well you know because it’s you know it’s

cultural differences even though we have

the same shade skin

we have different backgrounds so yeah

oh yeah

that’s cool you’re welcome

thank you

you’re welcome i’m going to have that on

the video so

oh yeah okay yeah

that’s what’s up thank you thank you so

much and feel free you know to reach out

again we’re going to keep this going of

course of course absolutely

thank you so much sam thank you

take care

bye

Sam Freeman, Elaine Hanly, Stockton, April 27, 2022.