A low-income student who is the first in their family to chase a four-year degree has roughly a one-in-five shot at finishing it. For everyone else, the odds are closer to two in three. That gap often has less to do with talent than with what a family can afford. SAT prep, tutoring, the kind of guidance that turns a good student into a strong applicant — it all costs money.
Sam Kiki has lived those odds. Long before he was a record-setting poker player or the founder of a fast-growing entertainment company, he was a kid in Las Vegas whose path to college ran through a local nonprofit that covered the things his parents couldn’t.
And earlier this month, he went back.
On June 5, Kiki shared photos from an event with the ACS Foundation and Dawson College Bound, where he helped honor students taking part in the Sam Kiki College Access Scholarship. The program he funds provides SAT and ACT prep, writing classes, tutoring, and whatever else working-class students need to compete for spots at top schools.
“I was only able to afford these resources in high school thanks to the goodwill and philanthropy of leaders in the community,” Kiki wrote. “I am grateful and humbled to be able to play a small part in continuing that legacy.”
The comments filled up fast. “A true man of the people,” one person wrote. “Love to see this kind of stuff!!” added another. A representative from a local academic program chimed in, too, noting that students had “marveled” at how far Kiki has come since his days at Green Valley High School. Plenty just went with “king kiki.”
Giving back is hardly new for the Amherst graduate. He’s poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the kinds of programs and causes that once made his own future possible — and the list keeps growing. One year it’s Christmas gifts for foster families. Another it’s Walmart runs for households in need or relief for Californians who lost everything in the wildfires.
And he has made it clear the work is far from finished. “For those who have followed me since the beginning, you know I am huge on helping others,” Kiki wrote in May, before making a simple promise: “These will KEEP GOING.”
Years ago, someone stepped in and changed his odds. These days, he’s doing the same for someone else.
