From facilitating Broken Box rehearsals to attending city council meetings discussing urban planning, Sam Cousins keeps one fact straight: He isn’t afraid to question.

“Sam is plentiful with the questions, but he is on point,” Broken Box teacher Lisa Battle said. “His brain is always looking for the best way to approach something, the best way to fix something.” 

As a 3-year Broken Box member, Sam has always been passionate to learn and improve. In his senior year, this passion allowed him to naturally step into leadership roles. 

“In Mary Poppins, we were the only two seniors who had been in a [LAHS] musical before, and [Sam] just totally stepped up,” Broken Box member senior Tessa Prodromou said. “He’s great at balancing fun and order in his leadership.” 

Throughout his career in Broken Box, Sam has challenged himself with a diverse set of roles, constantly increasing and furthering his experience on stage. 

“He’s played a wizard, he’s played a jock, he’s played a principal,” Battle said. “Every time and any time he gets a role, he takes it very seriously.” 

Outside of Broken Box, Sam’s role as a co-captain in boys volleyball has also taught him to mentor and train others with a patient but firm stance. 

“I think the younger guys in the [volleyball] team really focus on the [wins and losses] of the game, but I think that’s kind of been my biggest growth department,” Sam said. “I’ve started letting go of the wins and the losses, and the goods and the bads.” 

Sam explained that he’s learned to enjoy and pursue activities, not just for the end product, but because they truly helped him develop as a person. As one of this year’s graduation speakers, Sam hopes to bring a similar sentiment in his speech, in celebrating the seemingly insignificant aspects of the seniors’ high school experiences. 

“It’s about how we as a student body have instigated this Place (capital P) at Los Altos, which is so much more than the holes in the buildings and the construction,” Sam said. “Every small, perhaps insignificant thing that you do on campus, every person that you’re friends with, has contributed to the place that we’ve created over four years, and the place we’ll be leaving behind.”