From Scheller to Service: Sam Bolton Earns Georgia Tech’s Top Honors

Receiving one of Georgia Tech’s most coveted student leadership awards is a feat few students can claim, but earning two acknowledgements is almost unheard of.

Sam Bolton, a 4th year Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business student with a concentration in marketing and a Minor in Leadership Studies, was awarded Georgia Tech’s Service Champion Award and the Alvin M Ferst Leadership and Entrepreneurship Award. The Ferst Award lists the qualities of the ideal candidate as: a person of vision; a driving force to create a business or organization; an inspiration to others to reach their potential; a leader with the ability to anticipate future needs; an optimist about finding solutions;  one who generates support of the dream; and a person of character who says, “why not,” not “why.” Sam embodies all those qualities and more.

In the summer 2024, she participated in Scheller’s Leadership for Social Good Study Abroad Program and worked on a project with Tuzcsiholo , a nonprofit that supports families in which the parents grew up in state care. Sam applied the lessons learned during the study abroad to the organization she founded The Little Guy Foundation, a 501 c(3). Since then, Sam has gone on to create Atlanta-based Little Guy programs and events such as a biweekly art and haircuts program with the unhoused and a poetry open mic event for formerly unhoused and incarcerated individuals.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I started the ILSI study abroad program. Between learning about the social sector from the inside out and then experiencing the beauty of grassroots work in rural Hungarian communities - playing with kids who had been kept out of foster care because of the tireless commitment of a few determined women - I knew that there was no greater calling to answer than that of a big world full of beautiful, beautiful people." - Sam Bolton

Sam and the Little Guy’s impact reaches well beyond Atlanta. In 2025, Sam solo backpacked South America, hitchhiking for months at a time, teaching poetry and media skills to at-risk communities in parts of Ecuador, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Medellin, Colombia. After having gained a large following on social media, she has now curated the first internationally advertised social impact group trip to cross the length of the Amazon from Ecuador to Brazil, volunteering with an Ecuadorian Waorani tribe, and bringing art programs and materials to communities along the river. Other programs in Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador will follow, as she intends to pursue this work full time after graduation in the Spring of 2027.

Congratulations, Sam! Thanks for being Stellar at Scheller.

The Institute for Leadership and Social Impact (ILSI) is an interdisciplinary institute at Georgia Tech dedicated to promoting servant leadership and advancing organizational practices that contribute to a more just, caring, and sustainable world. Through experiential learning, research, and community partnerships, we nurture leaders who drive meaningful social change—locally in Atlanta and globally. To learn more about our initiatives and programs, visit our website.