Samantha enjoys all of culture and creativity that New York City has to offer. Kellyn Simpkins
Samantha entered Fordham as a visual arts major. Although the “starving artist” is a reality that most want to avoid, Samantha’s passion for creativity gave her what some would call courage to pursue that as a career. After a year, she decided on a different major but still wants to pursue her passion.
“I realized the application of creativity is something that is innate and can’t always be learned but can be improved with experience. This is why I would rather learn about the history of the industries I am interested in and learn the application through real life experience.”
She is certainly gaining real life experience. This spring semester, Samantha has a Marketing/PR internship for Chinese fashion designer Vivienne Tam in Manhattan. After her role in high school as the creative director for a charity fashion show, this is an exciting step up for Samantha. She will be helping with the Vivienne Tam fashion show at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week this February.
When asked about her chance to participate in her first large scale fashion show, she said, “I’m a bit nervous because I feel like this will be a great opportunity to network, but I’m also very excited to be a part of fashion week because I’m excited to see the behind-the-scenes planning for the show. It’s an honor to experience this huge event after obsessing over ‘Project Runway’ and ‘America’s Next Top Model’ for years.”
She also says she can’t wait to see all of Vivienne Tam’s breathtaking dress designs, although she jokes she is too short to model them herself on the runway.
Samantha is very involved not only off campus with her internship, but also on campus as president of Expressions Dance Alliance, one of Fordham’s dance companies. “Expressions was a huge factor in me coming to Fordham because I didn’t want to give up dance after dancing for 16 years of my life.” Expressions’ dances are student-choreographed and include all styles of dance like tap, ballet, jazz, hip hop and contemporary.
When asked about the struggles of being a club president, Samantha said, “You need to find the balance between school work and the responsibility you have to your club. You also have to find the balance between being friends with club members and being their leader.” However, these struggles do not overshadow the best part about being president. “I love that I get to give back to a club that is a huge part of my life here at Fordham.”
As far as future plans go, Samantha wants to stay involved with Expressions and become more involved with fashion clubs on campus. “I hope to intern for a TV or film production company to gain more experience in the film industry as well as the fashion industry since I am interested in both. After college, who knows! Maybe I’ll stay in New York or go back to California, but either city will be an adventure.”
