For an overview of the Northfield graduating class of 2024 please go to the profiles of Nashara Ellerbee and Wilson Harper.
As a junior at Northfield High School, Sammy Berman testified at the state Legislature in 2023 against a bill that would have banned all transgender athletes from competing in high school level sports.
It proved another opportunity where they have shown the intelligence evident in their 4.0 GPA and their International Baccalaureate Diploma. It was also a lesson in maturity, to tolerate and learn from people with beliefs different than the ones they passionately hold.
“There were definitely people who did not agree with me, and it was actually cool to work through that, to understand where people were coming from, even though I don’t agree with them,’’ they say. “The arguments I made were very well thought out. I was very well prepared.’’
The bill died in committee.
Sammy, who identifies as nonbinary, will take their hard-earned accomplishments to Colorado College next year. They will arrive with another recognition of their academic and leadership skills – a highly selective Boettcher Scholarship, an award worth $20,000 annually for four years with their college picking up the rest of the cost of tuition and fees.
Sammy was born in Colorado and after a brief stint in Indianapolis for their father to complete his training to be a gastroenterologist, the family returned to Denver. They attended Swigert and McAuliffe international schools.
During high school they have been very active in the Gender Sexuality Alliance, “I feel like Northfield is very accepting . . . very supportive;” a business club where they learned to do business plans and about entrepreneurship; and competed in a national student competition working on their mother’s business, an online art gallery called Art Burst, “to help on technology integration;” and they ran cross country.
Their extended essay, an IB cornerstone project of 4,000 words, was on a singular topic that grew from one of their favorite subjects.
“I really do love chemistry,’’ they say. “I wanted to understand more about how iron works, so I did the effective stomach acid pH on the solubility of dietary iron.
“I got to design my own experiment, too,” they say.
Sammy is grateful to their teachers and coaches for their guidance and support.
“I had an incredible chemistry teacher, Dr. Thomas Robbins,’’ who is also one of their cross country coaches. “He’s very smart, very funny. He makes it very fun. He goes into the science of running, explains why we do what we do.’’
And Joey Bender, the head cross country coach, who Sammy says is “absolutely incredible. I’ve never met anyone that has been more dedicated or more thoughtful and put so much energy into one thing.”
And Reina Cruz, an IB coordinator and one of the sponsors of the gender alliance who “has been absolutely incredible for helping me with advocacy work.” And their counselor, Nick Kreese-Bond, “is one of the best people ever.’’
“I think teachers here have all been exceptional,’’ Sammy says.
They intend to carry their love of chemistry to Colorado College, planning to major in biochemistry. Sammy is considering pursuing an MD and a PhD to possibly go into medical research. That means school till they are 35 or so.
“It would be a lot of school. I enjoy school,” they say. “But I would be able to contribute and find new drugs that could help people and specifically do that chemistry piece.
“But then also do the piece of helping people by doing more research and treating patients.’’
Like at Northfield, their college instructors will be critical.
“That’s something that’s been very important for me,’’ Sammy says. “Knowing who my teachers are is how I do better in class. And so that was something that I really wanted to make sure I had in college and saw that happen at Colorado College, more so than other schools.”
(The Foundation for Sustainable Urban Communities gives grants to Northfield High School’s International Baccalaureate Program.)
