Where is She Now?

Catching up with Minnesota Golf Foundation Women’s Scholarship recipient Samantha Lee

Foundation

In 2015, Wayzata High School senior Samantha Lee was awarded an academic scholarship by what was then the Minnesota Women’s Golf Association Scholarship Foundation (now the Minnesota Golf Foundation Women’s Scholarship). Lee, from Plymouth, used the scholarship funds to assist in her post-secondary education at the University of Minnesota. Now, nearly 10 years later, Lee has made the most of her opportunity.

Lee started playing golf during high school (after realizing her height would eventually short-circuit her hoop dreams) and worked furiously to catch up in her new sport. She eventually made varsity, highlighted by a seventh-place finish in the MSHSL State Tournament her senior year. 

“I’m a very logical thinker and being able to take a scientific approach to my golf game was critical to unlocking my understanding of golf,” Lee says. “Being able to think about my game as a game of numbers, even adding and subtracting yards to my clubs due to wind, became a much more straightforward way of improving my game.”

Lee’s mental approach not only helped in golf but set up her ultimate career, which began when her parents forwarded her an email detailing the women’s golf scholarship.

“Because of the scholarship, I was able to spend a lot of my time in college focusing on school, research and getting involved in organizations that I was passionate about because of their direct impact on the community,” Lee says. 

That included authoring two publications, volunteering for Be the Match (signing up thousands of students for the National Marrow Donor Registry) and Girls Who Code, running an after-school club for girls in grades 4-8 and teaching them how to code.

Lee graduated with summa cum laude honors in 2019 from the U of M, with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in genetics, cell biology and development, and minoring in computer science. She spent those four years in college volunteering as an undergraduate research assistant in a cancer lab, working on projects using genetic engineering techniques to engineer cell therapies. In 2021, Lee was recruited by a biotechnology startup in Salt Lake City called Recursion, and today she is a senior product manager at the company.

“My role as a product manager at Recursion perfectly marries my experience in genetic engineering and data science,” Lee says. “I am really passionate about the application of technology and AI to improving patients’ lives. I would love to look back on my career and know I made a difference in the broad health care industry.” 

Living in Utah, Lee plays leisure golf in the spring and summer but admits she would like to play more. “It’s hard to have to choose between hiking, skiing, camping and/or golfing in the spring. My favorite part about golfing in Utah is that the balls fly further in high altitude,” she says. But golf helped her reach the lofty heights of her life.