This story is part of a series of features on the 2025-26 Year of Service Fellows, highlighting the work they are doing in the Alamance County community.
When Sam Hinton ’25 decided to pursue Elon University’s Year of Service Fellows Program, she knew it was more than just a year-long placement; it was an opportunity to deepen her commitment to a community she had already grown to care for.
“I think that there were a lot of questions I still had about how things work and why things are the way they are here,” Hinton said. “I really wanted to get the opportunity to have a more hands-on role here as opposed to research, which is a little bit more like a bird’s-eye view.”
Hinton earned a degree in public health studies and political science, with minors in Spanish, Latin American studies, and peace and conflict studies, and now serves at the Alamance County Health Department through the fellows program. She is one of six 2025-26 Year of Service Fellows, recent Elon alumni who have the opportunity to work with local organizations to improve health education and economic development in the Alamance County community.
Rooted in Alamance County
Though Hinton didn’t grow up in Alamance County, she says it feels like home.
“My grandparents are from here, and all my extended family still lives here for the most part,” she said. “So it feels like a place where I have some roots.”
That sense of connection only deepened through her work as a Lumen Scholar, Elon’s highest undergraduate research award. Her project explored how immigration policy and discrimination in Alamance County impact the way members of the Latino community access healthcare and social services.
“I was interviewing healthcare and social service providers from across the county on where they were seeing gaps in their ability to provide care,” she explained. “Through that research, I got to meet a lot of the people that I work with now and familiarized myself with the different service provision organizations throughout Alamance County.”
That familiarity helped ease the transition into her current fellowship.
“I felt already decently familiar with the organizations that are doing the work of providing care,” she said. “It also kind of gave me the motivation to get to be a part of it.”
At the health department, Hinton’s days are varied, and that’s part of what she loves most. Her responsibilities range from administrative and event planning tasks to opportunities to engage directly with the community. She primarily works with the Behavioral Health and Substance Use Division, which works to address the opioid crisis and addiction services. The work has also given her a new appreciation for the people she serves alongside.
“It’s been really great to see how deeply everyone there is motivated by the mission of providing healthcare and improving the lives of people in Alamance County,” she said. “Despite the fact that everyone there has so much work to do and is incredibly busy, people are really committed to improving conditions for people across different communities.”
The Elon difference
Hinton credits Elon’s Public Health Studies program for preparing her to step confidently into her role.
“They do such an incredible job at situating students in the context of what’s going on in Alamance County, in North Carolina, and then on the national or international level,” she said. “They make sure students leave Elon aware of the disparities and inequalities that exist and really gear the program toward a health equity lens.”
Her required public health studies practicum, completed with the Burlington Housing Authority, was another pivotal experience.
“That helped me get familiar with the area and how things work in terms of healthcare and social services, as well as giving me connections in the community that I am able to use now,” she said.
Hinton credits Molly Green, associate professor of public health studies, as one of her most influential mentors.
“She really helped guide me through the process of figuring out what I was going to do post-grad,” Hinton said. “Her encouragement to pursue a project that was so specific to Alamance County helped me develop the ability to ask good questions and figure out how to answer them. I use that every single day at the health department.”
Prepared for service
While much of Hinton’s academic and professional journey has been rooted in North Carolina, her curiosity has taken her beyond. She spent a semester abroad in Cusco, Peru, studying maternal health and traditional medicine practices.
“It was an awesome experience and helped me figure out what hands-on research looks like in communities,” she said.
For Hinton, the Year of Service Fellows Program is both a continuation and a new beginning, a way to bridge the gap between the classroom and the community she has studied and come to care for deeply.
“I feel like the hands-on nature of all of my education at Elon has really come in handy as I’m transitioning into the workforce,” she said. “I feel really adequately prepared for whatever projects are being thrown my way, which has been great.”