Connect: Driven to succeed

Sam Bacon ’22 came to Elon looking for a well-rounded experience. Having played soccer since he was 6, the Richmond, Virginia, native wanted to be part of a successful athletics program. Passionate about data and statistics, he also wanted to attend a school that was academically rigorous. While in high school, Bacon received an invitation to campus from Elon men’s soccer coach Marc Reeves who felt Elon was a good fit for what Bacon was looking for. “I told him I’ve never heard about Elon,” Bacon says. The coach’s response? “Trust me. Come and see it, and you will fall in love.”

“He was right,” Bacon says with a smile, adding that in addition to being impressed by the beautiful campus and the quality of the soccer program, he was intrigued by Elon’s Honors Program. “I’ve always wanted to push myself academically and get involved in research if I can.”

Once at Elon, Bacon didn’t take long to get involved. He signed up as an academic tutor for other student-athletes and started leading the team’s community service efforts with Top Soccer and the Special Olympics. Soon, the redshirt midfielder was selected as a member of the Elon Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and as captain of the team. In the classroom, a required class for his statistics major introduced him to computer science, which led him to declare that as his second major.

“This past year has been challenging for everyone. But one of the things I’ve learned through those challenges is that I’ve grown a lot as a leader, as a player, as a student, as a problem solver.”

When it came time to pick a topic for his honors research, Bacon and his mentor, Associate Professor of Statistics Laura Taylor, decided to focus on developing code that would show the distribution of data visually so people who are not familiar with statistical tests can easily analyze it. Data, he says, is becoming a bigger part of how we make decisions, so the goal is to empower consumers to better understand the data that is driving those decisions. To advance his computer science skills, Bacon completed an internship this summer at SAS in Cary, North Carolina, where he worked on developing value-added scores for schools using metrics beyond standardized tests to measure real growth.

Bacon’s accomplishments on and off the pitch have not gone unnoticed. Earlier this year, he received the 2020-21 Colonial Athletic Association Leadership and Sport Excellence Award. The award goes to one student-athlete in each of 19 sports who represents the highest standards of teamwork, integrity, leadership and sportsmanship in their academic and athletic achievements.

Bacon doesn’t dwell on the honors and is looking forward to a new season and the completion of his research. He has enjoyed his experience at Elon so far, even when things have not gone according to plan. “There have been a lot of challenging moments,” Bacon says. “This past year has been challenging for everyone. But one of the things I’ve learned through those challenges is that I’ve grown a lot as a leader, as a player, as a student, as a problem solver. A lot of the things that I will carry with me after Elon have come through those challenges.

“I’ve learned a lot about myself in those situations, and I will take that with me.”