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Program in Religious Studies and Education |
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PRSE Alumnus ProfileSam Potolicchio
"Coaching the Boys and Girls' Club team is the reason I decided to do the PRSE. It was amazing to see this really heterogeneous group coming together. We had the best team chemistry," the 23-year-old says of the Bears, composed of Washington, D.C., high school students who would normally not mix: six from public schools and six from an assortment of private high schools. The oldest of five children and raised in the D.C. area himself, Sam was a competitive skier, attended the hands-on Vermont Mountain School for a semester, and worked for Senator Joe Lieberman's vice presidential campaign—all before entering Georgetown University to study government and psychology. Sam's interest in government ties in with his commitment to education. "As a political scientist, witnessing the 2004 election and the aftermath of September 11, it's amazing to see how damaged the public square is when it comes to religion, and how polarized it is. All the talk right now focuses on these very stringent and uninformed comments about religion and I think it's very damaging to religion, to politics, to the country, and to the world." Sam believes the way to avoid these pitfalls is by knowing more about other religions and people (as his basketball team learned) "in a way that is not doctrinaire and in a way that looks objectively at those other traditions." Sam will student-teach a class called "You and the Law" at Belmont High School in fall 2005, and is considering earning a law degree. "Having legal skills may be necessary if I want to teach these issues." Posted July 2005
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To listen to Sam Potolicchio talk about his basketball
team's second year—the team's amazing comeback from a first-year record of 0-16 to placing third in the
league's playoffs—is to capture his enthusiasm for youth, sports, and, if you keep your ears open, politics.
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