Sam has spent his career helping students get into college and other post-secondary opportunities. As Executive Director of On Point for College since 2016, Sam oversees a staff of thirty and over a hundred volunteers, all serving thousands of students and career aspirants in a six-county region of Central New York.

 

After graduating from Corcoran High School in Syracuse, Sam joined the US Marines as an Airwing Supplyman, stationed in North Carolina. He later came back to his hometown and found his calling assisting students with financial aid advice while a student himself at Onondaga Community College. While working as a Career Development Specialist at the Southwest Community Center, Sam met On Point for College founder Ginny Donohue and became the first employee of On Point. Ginny saw Sam’s commitment to his community and his talent in speaking to students, helping them wade through the complexities of financial aid, but also instilling in them a respect for education and what it could do for their future. Through Sam’s hard work, On Point grew from serving a few dozen students a year, to seeing almost a thousand On Point students graduate with a credential in 2022 from schools across New York State and around the nation. Sam holds an AS in Business Administration from Onondaga Community College, and a BS in Interdisciplinary Studies from Columbia College, and a MBA also from Columbia College.

Sam Beck-Andersen oversees, develops and administers invasive species prevention and management programs across the 17 county Finger Lakes region as the Coordinator for the Finger Lakes Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM). 
Hosted by the Finger Lakes Institute at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva NY, PRISM is a program that leverages a wide network of partners and stakeholders to address invasive species in the Finger Lakes Region. Efforts are coordinated with local and state agencies such as NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, NYS Parks, NY Ag and Markets, county water quality agencies, lake associations, and others to help conduct research, planning, surveying, mapping, control, restoration, and monitoring of priority invasive species infestations.

At conference, we will learn about invasive species in our region, management practices and programs, and how Rotary members can become involved with regional efforts to stop the spread of invasive species. While Sam works with the Finger Lakes division, there are PRISM programs throughout CNY Rotary!

Melissa Ward Rathbun (shown on left), Past District Governor of District 7190 and CNY Rotary Steering Committee Chair, and Lizzy Martin (shown on right), 2024-25 CNY Rotary President hailing from District 7150, will be both the entertainment and information for you following dinner Saturday evening with another update on the progress towards forming CNY Rotary.

 

CNY Rotary will be new name of our region starting July 2024, when the current districts 7150, 7170 and 7190 (all of whom are invited to this conference) will become one. And it's a lot of work to meld all of our resources, our people and our traditions that is being done by a lot of Rotarians from the three districts. You will get the latest news and learn how you can help out too!