As a kid, Samantha Kim never planned to go to college. Instead, Kim originally wanted to be a professional ballet dancer.
“I watched this documentary called ‘First Position’ that centered around a ballet dancer named Michaela Deprince, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to be her,’ and that’s what got me into ballet,” Kim said.
For six years, Kim threw herself into ballet and it became her whole world. Each year she performed “The Nutcracker,” a contemporary and a storybook ballet.
“I was overworking myself, and I was always the youngest in my level group. There was a point where I was going [to the studio] six times a week and I was only 10. [Doing that much] while my body was still growing and developing contributed to me spraining my ankle five times in six months, and that almost led to me tearing a tendon in my ankle, so it was time to call it,” Kim said.
In her final performance of “The Nutcracker,” she was given a solo, and according to Kim, she now views it as a nice way to tie up loose ends in that chapter of her life.
“Now I look back on [my final performance] with fond memories, but back then it felt like my world was ending because ballet was my whole life at the time. On top of that COVID [had just begun] and I was isolated and alone; it was really a tough time in my life,” Kim said.
Kim felt “aimless” at the beginning of high school, until she took Advanced Placement (AP) European History with Richard Barclay. Senior Joshua Mow took AP European History with Kim and noticed her interest in the class.
“We’d met in Biology our freshman year, so I knew her originally, but in [AP European History], I got to see her develop a love for history,” Mow said. “I’d say [Kim] was very much a driven person. Her work ethic was definitely beyond what anyone else in the class was. She always gave 110%, when really only 80% was required.”
After AP European History peaked her interest in the humanities, she decided to take AP United States History taught by Barbara Bein. One of the reasons she found history engaging was because of how her teachers approached the coursework.
“[Bein] was really good at presenting things in an objective way so we could form our own opinions about it. She wasn’t telling us what to think, she was giving us the facts and allowing us to do our own thinking. [Her teaching style] sparked a lot of academic discussion among my friends which I hadn’t really experienced before because people don’t want to go outside of class and talk about school, but she made it so interactive and I found it especially interesting because it’s so human-centered,” Kim said.
In her junior year, Kim joined the journalism class and became a staff writer on the High Tide. The job of a staff writer is to interview sources and write stories, and it pushed her to form connections with students in other circles. According to Kim, being a part of the High Tide enabled her to go out of her comfort zone.
“Joining journalism helped me integrate into the school and finally find my place. It allowed me to meet and befriend different people and it was a stepping stone to being involved in other areas of school,” Kim said.
Kim found that the process of interviewing people made her more empathetic. As a journalist, Kim was entrusted with information from her sources that led to her forming a deeper connection with them.
“In journalism you’re constantly talking to people and you have to care about people if you’re going to write a story about them. My history teachers made me care about the world and by extension, the people living there. [Both classes] pushed me in their own way to learn how to be empathetic and get out of my shell,” Kim said.
Kim credits Barclay and Bein for inspiring her to want to become a teacher herself. According to Kim, their classes helped her understand how diverse people’s personal ideologies and beliefs are.
“It helps me on a daily basis to remember that no one should be quick to judge because we don’t always know the full story. I want to be a teacher to help people ask questions like ‘Why is the world this way? Why is this system in place?’ I hope we can reach a point where we make things better one day,” Kim said.
According to Mow, history helped Kim realize that college is a place where she can specialize in her own field of study and he is very proud of all the work she has done. Kim is attending Cornell University next year and plans to study history.
“I’m a happier person now that I know that there’s so much I can do with my life,” Kim said, “I now know that when something bad happens it’s not the end of the world; there’s always something ahead.”
