Team: Men’s lacrosse
Hometown: Darien, Conn.
Major: Chemistry
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Inés Garcia (IG): You’re one of the co-captains for men’s lacrosse — what’s that been like and how’s the season going so far?
Sam Cragin (SC): It’s good. It’s definitely a lot of work — we meet with our coaches often, and we talk to the team before and after almost every practice. A lot of what we do is organizational: Making sure people are ready for games and know what our schedule is. Most of the work comes in the fall and the winter, when we don’t have access to our coach. That’s our big preseason. So a lot of the work is just managing the offseason so we’re ready to go come February, when we start.
So far, this season has been decent — we’ve definitely had a couple tough losses that we wish we could have had back. But we’ve also had a couple of big wins against teams that we didn’t beat last year. That’s always very fun to celebrate.
IG: Talk to me a bit more about being a chemistry major. Are you in a lab? I think I’ve definitely seen you around Hopper Science Center — I’m in [Assistant Professor of Chemistry] Bob Rawle’s lab.
SC: I’m a thesis student in Professor [of Chemistry Thomas] Smith’s [’88] synthetic organic lab. We’re working on synthesizing a molecule called enigmazole A. My specific focus is doing one diastereoselective hydrogenation, so we’re trying to put two hydrogens in a double bond in a specific way. I do a ton of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and different trials, changing up our model system and modifying things to get the molecule to act the way we want it to. There’s definitely a lot of intensive lab work and a lot of failures. I’d say 80 percent of what I do is a failure, but you learn what you can from that and keep going.
IG: What else are you involved with?
SC: I’m on the executive board of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. I’m in charge of community engagement and student engagement now, so the events I do are the Turkey Trot in the fall that benefits the Special Olympics. We did Kids’ Night Out, which is an event on the Friday before a holiday weekend, where we have all the neighborhood kids from all the local elementary schools — so a lot of professors’ kids — and for two hours we we play gym games in Lasell Gymnasium.
IG: How are you feeling about being a second-semester senior?
SC: Definitely pretty sad. I realized, going into senior year, that I haven’t done a lot of cool or notable stuff on campus. So I’ve been trying to check certain things off my bucket list. I hiked Greylock Mountain and went to The Clark for the first time in the fall and have been plenty of times since — but I’m definitely super sad. I really appreciate living at 70 [Hoxsey Street] and hanging out with my friends there. But I’m also sad about the lacrosse season ending, from the perspective of “I don’t know when I’ll be able to run around with 40 of my best friends every day — kind of like recess.”
IG: Do you want to pursue chemistry post-grad?
SC: I have the typical lacrosse guy finance job lined up, but I definitely want to pursue chemistry later in life, whether that be a PhD or working in some kind of pharmaceutical company doing lab work. That’s definitely something I see myself doing later in life after I get burnt out or decide I don’t like it.
IG: Beyond academics, what are things you like doing on campus for fun?
SC: I started doing a lot of grilling this year. At my house, we have a gas grill, so I’ve gotten really into having the team over and buying a ton of either steak or hamburgers and hot dogs. That’s something I’ve spent a lot of time doing on Sundays being like: “Alright, what are we going to grill, who wants to come over for hamburgers, hot dogs, and grilling steaks?” And it’s definitely been a lot of failure — it kind of reminds me of my [chemistry] lab work. I didn’t really cook before I became a senior.
IG: What have been some of your favorite memories on the team?
SC: Maybe beating Amherst in overtime last year on our senior day, which was awesome for the seniors and just a really fun win. Certain times, the upperclassmen play the underclassmen in a scrimmage during Winter Study, and the loser has to go in the Green River. And the general practices — I don’t think anything can replicate a regular good old practice when the weather’s nice and we’ve got a fun practice ahead of us. I think those are the moments I’ll really, really remember when I graduate, like the day-to-day enjoyment when the weather gets nice.
