Senior Reflects: Samantha Maynard Shares How Her Double Major Supports Her Aspirations

Students working on a disaster prepardness project.

Meet Samantha Maynard, a graduating senior who double majored in disaster preparedness and emergency management, and community health. Samantha lived on campus and is originally from West Milford (Passaic County.)

Favorite Faculty Memory: My favorite moment with a faculty member is when Dr. Willis helped me plan my big trip to Europe. Thank you!

Samantha in front of a world map.Favorite Personal Memory: My favorite personal moments were the nights my roommates and I, from this past year, would hang out and just talk about random things, and have a blast doing it. We would talk about anything and everything and have the best conversations that we somehow never remembered the next day, but were amazing to be a part of when they happened. 

Career Aspirations: My career aspirations are to work in communities that often need the most help, whether they are or have been underserved for some time, lack health foods, are not safe or accessible. I want to support people who are often neglected due to racism or other prejudicial acts. I am also open to working in a position where I can help underserved communities better recover after a disaster and finding ways to help them get back on their feet. Being able to work in both the community health and emergency management field is a dream.

The professors at Rowan helped to support my ideas by just having experience working in both fields and seeing how beneficial having both Samantha's family photo.backgrounds can be for jobs, or even just or educational components. Whenever I would remind my professors of this other major I was pursuing, they would always include it as something to consider when making a plan. I learnt that we shouldn’t exclude ourselves from the most obvious answers or career paths but that we have to consider everything that can effect this one thing. 

Shout Outs! I want to say thank you to Dr. Willis, Dr. Vaughn, Dr. Miller, and Professor Kneeshaw-Price because they were the ones who helped me out the most, were there to answer all my questions, and were the ones who really helped me to push myself and do the best I could. 

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