Samantha McNelly, an Economics major and Political Science minor, graduated from the College of Wooster in 2014. For Sam, a defining feature of her Wooster experience was the relationships. Sam has been continually impressed by the influence and power her Wooster relationships had. “My best friends in the world are still my friends that I met in my first-year dorm on the third floor of Wagner Hall”. When she thinks about Wooster, she thinks about the people that help her get through IS, her advisors and advisees. Wooster’s culture is one of mutual support.
Since high school, Sam knew she wanted to study economics. She was sure that she was a social science person, but also wanted to be challenged in quantitative reasoning. When she got to Wooster, the first class she took was Macroeconomics in her sophomore year. Macro was considered a pretty challenging class, but she was confident about her skills and interests. “I loved Macro from the very first class… I was surprised because most people didn’t enjoy Macro at the time”. She also enjoyed Development Economics, especially because it allowed her to explore topics related to international development. She also credits Local Social Entrepreneurship and Global Social Entrepreneurship, a sequence of experiential learning community-based learning courses which helped her develop academic and life-skills.
“After Wooster, my path was not what I was expecting, but it has been great”. When Sam graduated, she was sure that she wanted to go into the international economic development path. She applied and was accepted into the Peace Corps assigned to Cameroon in Central Africa for 2 years. This experience allowed her to practice her French. Her background in economics allowed her to join as an agribusiness volunteer. However, 8 months into her program, the Peace Corps ended their engagement in that area. As the organization began looking for a new priority area, the local stakeholders began asking for more support for community health. Sam completed her Peace Corps assignment satisfied because her Cameroonian partners received the program really well as it was something that they wanted.
Sam returned to the US in 2017 not knowing that her plans would change through no fault of her own. Before Sam left Cameroon, she had a job lined up at a University in Alaska in their economics research center. Upon her arrival, the funding for her job fell through – They couldn’t afford to hire Sam anymore. This was a major set-back. After looking for new opportunities, she ended up accepting a job at Planned Parenthood as a full-time sex educator and as a part time advocate at her local domestic violence shelter. Although she first felt that she did not have the qualifications to work in those positions, she really enjoyed what she was doing and even began contemplating a career shift from economics to public health. Sam wanted to become better educated around Public Health, so she applied to a dual master’s degree in social work and public health at Washington University in Saint Louis.
After she graduated in May 2023, she went back to Alaska. “I was very lucky to get a job before I graduated”, Sam explains. She is now a Program evaluator at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. At this position, she supports three programs: Comprehensive Cancer Control program, Suicide Prevention program, and Domestic Violence Prevention program. Despite an unfortunate turn of events, Sam embraced the uncertainty of a new field and is doing what she loves.
Sam’s advice to her younger self is, “Be open to let the path change”. Although Sam was devastated after the University in Alaska could not hire her, she said that if that had not happened, she would not have started working at Planned Parenthood and found a career in social work and public health.