Scheduling a time to meet with Samantha Kenny was a bit of a challenge; in addition to being a junior in CAS, studying environmental science, Samantha is a Green Eagle, President of the Beekeeping Society, a member and recruitment counselor of Alpha Chi Omega, and a manager at The Perch, where we were able to meet. Amiable and confident, Samantha kept her eye on her duties at The Perch while she spoke and wowed me with her accomplishments.
In her nominations, one of her friends wrote that Samantha is “going to a trailblazer for women in science” and that she will “save the Earth.” Samantha’s passion for saving the earth quickly comes alive in our chat. “Environmental science is my life,” she laughs.
Samantha’s interest in environmental science grew in her freshman year; after coming in as a potential Marine Bio major and joining the UC for Environmental Science, Samantha began to pursue environmental science more. After visiting the bee aviary with her UC, she began to get involved in the Beekeeping Society, rising from secretary of the group to president. She volunteers with the DC Beekeepers Alliance and even taking a beekeeper certification course with them. After serving on the e-board of Eco-Sense, she was referred to join the Green Eagles! Getting the chance to speak to Samantha revealed sometimes the more hidden side of American: the amazing things that women in science do at American.
HCAU: What makes you feels powerful?
SK: Proceeding in any situation feeling powerful is reliant on confidence in yourself to accomplish your current goal. This type of confidence can be built by the people around you. Having a strong support system to help if things don’t go as planned can allow you to take risks that you normally would not. Learning can also be empowering, knowing about the things happening around you and having the necessary information to form opinions and build ideas provides a feeling of power when interacting with people.
HCAU: What advice would you give to women who want to empower other women?
SK: Start with yourself. Accept your flaws, work on them with optimism, allow yourself to apologize when you make mistakes and expect apologies when others make mistakes. Accepting the things that aren’t perfect or that you’ve done wrong allows you to appreciate your strengths and the positive things you’ve accomplished. Building a strong sense of self-respect will move your through life with confidence and insight respect from the people around you. Also, if you’re actively seeking the empowerment of women, which everyone should, don’t break another women down if she makes choices you wouldn’t make. Celebrate women, not one type of woman.
HCAU: What women do you look up?
SK: I am and have always lived immersed in amazing women who continue to teach me so much and challenge me to constantly improve. I consider strength to be one of my most defining characteristics and that wouldn’t exist if my mom wasn’t the woman she is. I was supported in everything I did and taught to trust my own abilities. I learned kindness and self-reflection from my nonna, skills that are profoundly important but had to be learned and perfected. Besides my mom and my nonna, I don’t have an individual role model that I can name but the constant accomplishments and celebrations of women that I can see everyday is so inspiring. The accomplishments of the women surrounding me every day on campus are staggering and I’m consistently humbled by the abilities of my friends.
HCAU: What is an accomplishment, especially in the field of environmental science, that you’re especially proud of?
SK: On the first day of my position as a Green Eagle Sustainability Peer Educator in August 2013, we brainstormed ideas for a conference for student sustainability peer educators at schools around the DMV area. We were asked to think up a name for this conference, I had a lightbulb moment and immediately proposed SEED (Student Environmental Educators Discussion). It was approved soon after and I began to work on the SEED planning committee. Now, I’m working on the third annual SEED conference. These conferences have been incredibly inspiring, seeing a hundred passionate students coming from as far as Pennsylvania to meet and share ideas on how to communicate sustainability effectively to their student body. Definitely my proudest moment at American University.
HCAU: What is the most amazing experience you’ve had on AU’s campus?
SK: The most amazing experience I’ve had on campus was being a Spring Recruitment Counselor for the 2015 Panhellenic Formal Recruitment. American University Panhellenic Women are by far the most collectively inspiring and impactful group of women I’ve ever known. Meeting the other Recruitment Counselors and learning about what makes each sorority so amazing and then having the honor of helping a new group of women find their organizations was profoundly humbling. It put my college years into perspective and allowed me to meet some of the most amazing women at American University.
HCAU: What do you think is a unique fact about you?
SK: I was born without a sense of smell. It’s a rare genetic disorder (Isolated Congenital Anosmia) that leads to a full inability to smell. So, I can taste the 5 main tastes but I can’t smell the 50,000 or so individual smells that everyone else has the ability to identify. A bunch of my family also can’t smell.
HCAU: What is your dream vacation?
SK: I’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand! You can swim and ski at the same time and the beaches are amazing
HCAU: What is a dream of yours that you hope to achieve one day?
SK: Right now, I’m not working toward a concrete goal. I feel like I’m still learning a lot about myself and I want to feel free to change my life plan without a major identity crisis. I’ve always wanted to write a book, though, so I hope I will do that one day.
HCAU: Are you an adventurous eater? If so, what’s the craziest thing you’ve eaten?
SK: I am an adventurous eater! Not being able to smell makes it really easy to eat things that taste bad to other people. I have a problem with textures, though, so slimy things are pretty much out. I have had snails and crocodile but I’m definitely open to eating much weirder things. My favorite food is still buffalo wings, though.
Photography: Kristie Chua