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We were delighted to hear from Samantha (Sammi) Bennett, Class of 2019, recently! Sammi, an Honors student who double-majored in Environmental Studies and Psychology, spent last year traveling around the world as a gap-year educator with Baret Scholars. She taught environmental studies and creative practice while leading immersive trips, such as an ascent of Mt Kilimanjaro and a cycling journey across Spain. (Dr. Matzek was especially gratified to know that Sammi, who took ENVS 144 Natural History of Baja California in 2017 and later TA’d the class, had the gap-year students adopt Spanish species as “Amigos” to learn the local flora and fauna, just as the Baja class does every year.)

Before working with Baret Scholars, Sammi completed a master’s degree at Oxford, studying the mobilization and contestation of the Andean indigenous concept of “sumak kawsay,” or harmonious living, as an alternative to development. She also did a case study at the Eden Project Cornwall, an educational botanic garden with a unique approach to nature education. Her recently published peer-reviewed article about the work can be viewed in Environmental Education Research.

While at SCU, Sammi was active in student government, worked at the Center for Sustainability, was a mainstay of SCCAP, and traveled to Bolivia as a Global Fellow and to Rwanda and Uganda as a Global Social Benefit Fellow. She won a Fulbright fellowship to study in India in 2019.

Sammi is headed to Seattle next, and her new position is as manager for the Samuel Scholars in Belonging Fellowship, cultivating and creating a platform for creative and interdisciplinary scholarship on belonging. Her role in designing and facilitating learning curricula and workshops, and accompanying global scholars through their research journeys, seems perfectly aligned with her many experiences in environmental education and international research.

Congratulations, Sammi, on all that you are doing to foster creative approaches to sustainable living!