Whitman Student Helping to Build Back Syracuse Community

Since his first year at Syracuse University, Sam Katzman ’24 (WSM/NEW) has been making a difference on campus and in the Syracuse community. He’s done so using the skills he is learning in the classroom with compassion and generosity. 

The Natick, Massachusetts, native is a junior with a dual major in business analytics at Whitman and advertising at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. 

He is involved with a number of campus organizations that combine what he’s learning with his desire to help others. One of his biggest accomplishments has been working as an intern for Diane Crawford, executive director for institutional culture at the Whitman School. Crawford was looking for a student to assist with a new initiative, Build Back Local, a program connecting Whitman students and their growing business expertise with minority- and women-owned small businesses within the City of Syracuse. A first-year student at the time, Katzman heard about the opportunity through Whitman’s IMPRESS program. He was selected to help with the pilot program, which launched in spring 2021. 

Katzman got to work using his business analytics skills as part of a 10-week externship to help a local minority-owned IT company, RPC Technology, build marketing lists and bring in new clients, and to research telecommunications companies and internet providers that had government grants requiring minority- or women-owned subcontractors. Crawford was so impressed that she kept Katzman on for both his sophomore and junior years. 

“The City of Syracuse has a pretty underserved economic zone, and a lot of students at the University never see that,” he explains. “We’re moving Build Back Local forward with the idea that Whitman students can get work experience while also helping women- and minority-owned businesses gain access to skills they need to thrive. I’m a big advocate for this program and I’m determined to get others on campus involved.” 

He has been recognized as a Whitman Leadership Scholar, a Whitman Inclusive Excellence Scholar and a Syracuse University Success Scholar. 

Katzman hopes to put his passion for helping others and his knowledge of both business analytics and advertising to good use when he graduates in 2024. 

He says, “I think my goal is to combine both my majors at an advertising agency as a strategist for a few years, and then I see myself working for a nonprofit where I can continue to make a difference.”

By Caroline K. Reff