Community is a theme that shows up again and again for Sam Besca ’22. Community is what she has fostered with fellow artists in New York City since graduation, and community is what she was seeking — and found — when she transferred to Hamilton from New York University as a sophomore.
“Hamilton presented me with a group of people that cared about me — just the experience of walking to class every day and saying hi to a million different people made me feel so seen and known and at home at a time when that was really pivotal for me,” Besca said.
Besca is an actor, filmmaker, and photographer who earned a degree in government at Hamilton. She has found solace and creative expression through the arts throughout her life, and her interest in politics stems from her desire to actively participate in society and shape the world for the better. At Hamilton, Besca was able to explore the full range of her passions through the open curriculum.
“I think, ‘Wow, these are very disparate things, on paper, that I seem to be doing,’ but I really do feel like they’re all at the core of who I am,” Besca said.
Post-Hamilton, Besca completed an apprenticeship at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, N.Y., studied at New York City’s Atlantic Acting School, and earlier this year, directed her first film, a short called To the Floor. The film is about a day in the life of a competitive ballroom dancer, exploring what it’s like to be a woman in a high-pressure, hypercompetitive space.
When Besca’s friend wrote the script for To the Floor and asked if she would direct the film, initially, Besca was nervous — she knew nothing about the world of ballroom dancing and had little formal training in filmmaking. But her Hamilton experience with thinking critically, problem-solving, and communicating across differences gave her the courage to take on the project.
“The big thing that I feel like I've taken into my work is the ability to collaborate with people who think very differently from myself,” Besca said. “I remember because of the open curriculum, you were frequently working with people who came from all different disciplines and just thought very differently than you, and you had to figure out how to speak a language that is both universal and specific and effective. And that is exactly my job on set — to take a group of people who are all trying to do a million different jobs and think very differently and coordinate them in order to achieve the goal, which is to tell the story. And I feel like Hamilton really prepared me to do that, because I had experience just working with so many people from so many different backgrounds.”
One of Besca’s most pivotal experiences at Hamilton came from an experiential learning course where she sat in on Utica City Court proceedings. Seeing the judicial system play out in front of her and witnessing the people behind the mechanisms of governmental power informed her perspective on active citizenship.
“It was really empowering, because I realized how I can create material change in people's lives,” Besca said. “That kind of changed the way I thought about my ability to participate in democracy and my duty as a citizen, as being something that is really within my control to exercise those rights.”
Besca’s goals include continuing to cultivate community and making her mark through the arts. She plans to host writing salons in her small backyard to bring together creative people and watch the magic unfold. Her desire to enact positive change is as powerful as ever, and her Hamilton education has helped her synthesize her varied passions into a strong sense of purpose.
“It occurred to me that perhaps I can take the skills that I've developed in photography and filmmaking and acting and mesh them with my desire to create positive change, and maybe shift the framework a little bit to be more about cultural change and helping shape people's understandings of the world around them through art rather than through law,” Besca said. “That is suited to my desires for my daily life and the ethos of wanting to really exist as a positive force in some capacity, even if the mechanism has changed.”
Posted December 3, 2025
