This is an ongoing series of spotlighting the SNJGA 2024 Scholarship recipients. The SNJGA was honored to award more than $40,000 in scholarships in addition to another $10,000 via the Bill Walters Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame Scholarship.

Savannah Sampson is about to head out into the next chapter of her life: College. And while golf won’t be front-and-center when she steps into the classroom at UNLV, she said there’s no doubt the sport has been key to her future success. –by Bill Bowman, Las Vegas Golf Insider

“The SNJGA really helped me both on and off the golf course,” said Sampson, who played her high school golf at Palo Verde. “It helped me learn the sport as well as helping me a lot with my social skills. I got to meet and play with a lot of young golfers as well as learning tips and gaining knowledge from them. It was really a great experience.”

She added that golf also showed her you’re not always going to succeed, but that’s OK.

“What I learned starting out with junior golf and carrying over to today is that you’re going to make mistakes,” she said. “That’s where practice and hard work come in to help build your skills. It’s all about being able to recover. And that carries over to the classroom.”

Now it’s on to UNLV where she plans to concentrate in the medical field.

“I plan to study biology but I’m also looking at applied health sciences,” she said. “

Sampson earned a UNLV Signature Scholarship as well as a Millennial Scholarship. She said that while her time in the classroom helped her earn those scholarships, golf also played a role.

“School and golf have a lot in common,” she said. “Golf matches take a long time and you’ve got a lot of time to work on your focus. It’s a very mental game. And that carries over to school. It’s also mental. You’ve got to be dedicated to spending a lot of time studying…and whether that’s the next shot, or studying for an exam or going to practice, you’ve got to stay focused.”

She said she hasn’t ruled out taking a look a playing golf for UNLV, but it won’t be right away,

“I really want to focus on my academics,” she said. “The driving force is I really want to be successful and want to concentrate and give my studies as much time as I can.”

The choice to study in the medical field came to the forefront of her plans during her junior year of high school.

“I took a lot of medical related classes that sparked my interest,” she said. “I took health sciences, medical assisting and anatomy and physiology. From there it just stayed with me and I kept getting more and more interested.”

Sampson already knows where she plans on landing.

“I plan on being an anesthesiologist,” she said. “I feel like there is a lot of opportunity to make an impact in the medical field and that’s what I plan to do.”