Featured Student: Samantha Jackson

When an intensive surgical recovery required her to spend two weeks straight on bed rest with her eyes closed, Samantha Jackson took this difficult experience as an opportunity for reflection on her path up to that point.

One experience stood out, on that reflection, as having left an enduring mark: a Self-Designed Experience Jackson created to explore cooking and food blogging. Jackson, who had grown up “sitting empty-handed at birthday parties or dinners, as I watched my peers fight for the last piece of dessert” due to life-threatening food allergies, began creating allergy-friendly recipes that could fit into a college-student budget and schedule and sharing them on her blog, So, What Can You Eat? This project expanded Jackson’s culinary and communications skills alike, ultimately helped earn her the Innovative Leadership Award from the Center for Student Involvement, and laid the foundation for her subsequent service work in community food access.

Across three study tours, a Portman fellowship, a summer of full-time research through UHP Discover, an Honors writing course, her food-blogging experience, and a self-designed Honors Experience that “connected the discipline of learning a new sport to the persistence it takes to study for the LSAT,” Jackson has made full use of the resources around her to carve a unique path as a global citizen scholar. The underlying passion connecting all of her Honors Experiences is the same: “I strive to advocate for communities that are often overlooked by existing systems,” she says, adding, “my time at UC and within the Honors Program has allowed me to learn and experience more than I could have ever imagined.”