Alumna Profile: Samantha Goerger JIF '13, North Dakota Leader at State Student Council Conference

Samantha (left) and friends at North Dakota State Student Council Conference 
(photo credit: Samantha Goerger)

We are always pleased when we hear from Summer Scholars program alumnae. Samantha Goerger JIF '13, Brown University, was invited to attend the North Dakota State Student Council Conference in December. She was running for a state officer position to represent Wyndmere High School. Sam also served as a student mini session leader and presented a session about the Joyce Ivy Foundation Summer Scholars program.

Sam shared the following thoughts about the conference:

"There are two goals for the state conference, one is to elect new state officers and the other is to inspire the student councils in North Dakota to go out and make a difference in their communities. There are mini sessions as well which include speakers who present information on leadership development and maximizing leadership potential."

While at the conference, Sam was also representing Richland-Wilkin Kinship, a mentoring program in the North Dakota and Minnesota counties of Richland and Wilkin. During the conference, she received an anonymous phone call which provided the opportunity to earn a matching $200 grant for Kinship if she raised a minimum of $200 in three days. Sam announced the grant opportunity to the 1,400 student leaders at the North Dakota conference and passed a bucket to collect spare change. The students donated $430 for Kinship and the donor added $200. Sam continued the fundraising and the final donation was $932.50. The Kinship participants will learn about this fundraising effort in January 2014 when they will benefit from the donations and discover the value of continuing to give and paying it forward.

The 2014 Joyce Ivy Foundation Summer Scholars program application is available online. We invite you to complete the application as Sam did one year ago. The deadline is February 24, 2014.