WHY HELLO THERE
My friends and family often ask me (with just a hint of sarcasm), Samantha, why do you do the things you do? This portfolio, dear ones, is my humblest attempt at explaining why.
Throughout my undergraduate career, I was pulled in seemingly disparate professional, personal, and academic directions. I was a devout premed (even survived Physics) but majored in Law, Societies, and Justice and minored in Disability studies. I worked in homelessness services, learning crisis response, deescalation, and trauma informed care even as I spent most of my days in an ivory tower. Well-meaning advisors encouraged me to continue on the path to social work, even as I was committed to becoming a physician. I drank copious amounts of caffeine, stayed in Odegaard too late, and preached to all of my friends about self care.
As disparate as these commitments seem, they are all connected by core values that they unearthed and crucial lessons I learned. So, my lovelies, in evaluating why I do the things I do, I am constantly brought back to my values: connection, care, equity, creativity and gratitude. I value connection because of my work building relationships and establishing trust with unstably housed people and the service providers who work with them. I know the politics and potentials of care through recognizing my own interdependence with others in pursuit of change, fulfillment, and equity. I value the pursuit of equity through my work within socio-legal and disability studies. I value creativity in addressing very complex issues and in reminding us of the beauty in being human. Years after my graduation, my commitment to social justice and medicine continues. I work as an intensive case manager full-time, caring for chronically homeless individuals, while working part time in medicine.
I have organized this portfolio according to my values. In each page, I have provided an explanation of what each value has meant to me and how I came to know it. It is not chronological.
As a fair warning, I have done my best to make this portfolio reflect what I'm like as a human, which means that it oscillates rapidly between highly intellectual, seriously silly, and emotionally nostalgic.
I hope you enjoy.
Throughout my undergraduate career, I was pulled in seemingly disparate professional, personal, and academic directions. I was a devout premed (even survived Physics) but majored in Law, Societies, and Justice and minored in Disability studies. I worked in homelessness services, learning crisis response, deescalation, and trauma informed care even as I spent most of my days in an ivory tower. Well-meaning advisors encouraged me to continue on the path to social work, even as I was committed to becoming a physician. I drank copious amounts of caffeine, stayed in Odegaard too late, and preached to all of my friends about self care.
As disparate as these commitments seem, they are all connected by core values that they unearthed and crucial lessons I learned. So, my lovelies, in evaluating why I do the things I do, I am constantly brought back to my values: connection, care, equity, creativity and gratitude. I value connection because of my work building relationships and establishing trust with unstably housed people and the service providers who work with them. I know the politics and potentials of care through recognizing my own interdependence with others in pursuit of change, fulfillment, and equity. I value the pursuit of equity through my work within socio-legal and disability studies. I value creativity in addressing very complex issues and in reminding us of the beauty in being human. Years after my graduation, my commitment to social justice and medicine continues. I work as an intensive case manager full-time, caring for chronically homeless individuals, while working part time in medicine.
I have organized this portfolio according to my values. In each page, I have provided an explanation of what each value has meant to me and how I came to know it. It is not chronological.
As a fair warning, I have done my best to make this portfolio reflect what I'm like as a human, which means that it oscillates rapidly between highly intellectual, seriously silly, and emotionally nostalgic.
I hope you enjoy.