Just call them “The Sams.”
Samantha Kasner and Samantha Amos are seniors and psychology majors. The energetic pair also spent the summer helping ensure a memorable first experience for incoming students at the University of Mary Washington.
As two of the five UMW orientation coordinators, Kasner and Amos worked with Melissa Jones, assistant dean of student involvement, to design programming and manage behind-the-scenes event planning during the university’s June and August orientation sessions that welcomed the largest class in the history of the university.
“It’s amazing to see the university effort behind orientation and how it all works,” said Kasner.
They both agree that orientation is a critical moment for incoming students.
“I still talk to my orientation leader from my freshman year,” said Amos.
And thanks to their hard work, UMW’s orientation was nothing short of an overwhelming success.
“The Sams have a reputation for being exceptionally organized and thoughtful,” said Jones. “Their ability to work collaboratively with one another and the other orientation coordinators really took the orientation experience to a new level.”
UMW welcomed more than 1,350 students to campus this August for a revamped first-year program that features seminars integrated with residential clustering, comprehensive advising and the university’s second-ever common book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
As part of their roles as orientation coordinators, Kasner and Amos will each work with a first-year seminar course as a peer mentor.
“The design of the living and learning communities show you that people are here for you right off the bat,” said Kasner, who will be working with Assistant Professor of Psychology Hilary Stebbins in the freshman seminar “The Science of Sleep: Sleep Deprivation and College Life.”
With the same name, you might think that working together would prove difficult for “The Sams.” Yet they have so much in common, it actually works.
The duo met during a first-year statistics course and have crossed paths ever since: working with orientation since their first year, studying abroad in Europe this past summer, taking on the same major and now, living together as senior year roommates.
“We do so much together,” said Amos, “that people starting calling us ‘The Sams’ and it just stuck.”
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