Intern Spotlight: Samantha Issa
Special thanks to Learning Life intern, Ehvyn McDaniels, for helping to draft Samantha’s profile.
Explore. Connect. Learn. These three verbs could describe what Learning Life is about, but they also define the passion of our intern, Samantha Issa.
Born in New Jersey of an American mother and a Lebanese father, you might say that Samantha was born to explore, connect and learn. “My desire to travel, explore, and learn informs most of my decisions. Traveling has fueled a passion for connecting with the people around me, and I have come to value human relationships over almost anything else.” These passions to explore, connect and learn help explain why Samantha has studied Spanish in Spain; taught children reading, writing and math; tutors English to immigrants in Washington D.C.; and serves as an admissions assistant fielding inquiries and applications from the diverse students applying to George Washington University.
As a senior at GWU, Samantha majors in Organizational Sciences and aims to work for an enterprise with a social conscience. “I would love to work for a social enterprise or other socially impactful business where I could use my communication skills and travel experience to make a difference.” To this end, she has volunteered with Serengetee, a fast-growing clothing company founded by college students that uses a portion of its proceeds to support local designers and causes around the world, with Lush, a cosmetics company that makes uses natural, ethically-sourced ingredients, and most recently with Learning Life.
This summer, Samantha interned with Learning Life from her home in New Jersey. Employing her developing research, design and social media skills, Samantha diligently carried out a variety of projects for Learning Life. She started by proposing ways for Learning Life to grow its audience via social media, then helped expand our audience on Facebook, and spurred us to create a Facebook group for volunteers, interns and supporters. Samantha also compiled a list of one hundred valuable informational resources online for our social media page readers; produced an initial list of placemat and poster makers that Learning Life might partner with; gathered facts about metro Washington D.C. for Learning Life’s (former) “Weekly Learn” launched in September; updated news media advertising rates in metro D.C. to compare with Learning Life pricing for our upcoming napkin education initiative; created a number of promotional posters and educational infographics (click on the example of her work to the right); and drafted a guide to search engine optimization (SEO) to improve Learning Life’s online search rankings. Importantly, this last project helped move Learning Life to first and second place in Google searches of the name “Learning Life.”
When asked why she decided to volunteer with Learning Life, Samantha responded, “I feel invested in the cause. The amount of information available to us is valuable but intimidating, and Learning Life can help make that information less unapproachable and more learnable.” Learning Life is happy and thankful for Samantha’s investment as we have benefited substantially from her careful and conscientious work this summer.
We congratulate Samantha in advance on her graduation from GWU, and wish her the best as she pursues her passions to explore the world, connect and learn.
To learn more about interning or volunteering with Learning Life, contact us at email@learninglife.info.