Samson Tan

On his first trip to Puerto Rico, an eighteen-year-old Samson stayed in a child's guest room adorned with Disney characters. Laying beside the resident princesses, he fell asleep to the midnight melody that he later learned was the song of the coqui. As a proud New York City native, growing up in the diverse working class borough of the Bronx, he was surrounded with strong "Nuyorican" influences.

Listening to a New York Times podcast while he stepped on the subway to work, Samson was overcome with visceral empathy for the working class Americans in Puerto Rico facing a mounting humanitarian and mental health crisis. Shooting off text messages to his friends in between subway stations, the outlines of the Energise project had already begun to form by the time he stepped off the train at Union Square.

Samson leads platform development and operations at Proclivity Systems, specializing in digital marketplaces and analytics. In his off hours, he coaches youth lacrosse with Kids Lacrosse The World. In his role as Program Coordinator, he helped to launch the first youth program in Malaysia. Samson is proud to travel as a Team China Assistant Coach/Staff to the 2018 World Lacrosse Championships.