Samantha spent most of her childhood and adolescent years growing up in a small town nestled in the mountains of north Georgia. Growing up she participated in many leadership positions and worked closely with others to plan, organize, orchestrate and carry out successful events. In working with and organizing these different events, Samantha knew pursuing a business degree was the right path for her in order to work events later in life. Upon graduating high school Samantha was accepted to Brigham Young University Idaho, along with a few other universities. But after some reflection and thought it was decided, she picked up and moved her whole life out to Rexburg, Idaho in the summer of 2008. College has been everything she expected. It has been a wonderful three years full of good experiences, many friends, exciting adventures and lots of snow! Throughout the course of her college years Samantha has been able to complete an internship with Texas Old Town, a wedding venue facility. It is here that Samantha first discovered her true love of the wedding industry. In addition Samantha has also had the experience of starting, organizing, and running a company with twenty-eight other students on campus at BYU-Idaho. Other hand on experiences Samantha has, include the opportunity of participating in two consulting projects with clients from the surrounding community. Her first project was based in conducting market research and analysis for a potential product line, and the second consultation was to help the client create a complete business plan for their new company. Most recently Samantha completed a two-year full time volunteer assignment for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Samantha loved working closely with the people and surrounding communities of San Jose, California. During this eighteen month volunteer project Samantha had the many opportunities to work alongside a wide variety of people. She provided many hours of service throughout the community, taught one on one lessons, and helped individuals find an improved quality of life and worked aggressively to raise people’s self worth and confidence. Her time as a missionary was very rewarding and provided her with many invaluable experiences. Samantha has come to Ascend Alliance for her Senior Internship Project. Samantha is working closely with our Annual Gala Fundraiser as the Production Manager. She spends her time in the office coordinating and getting in contact with those who will be performing at our event, orchestrating the program, writing the script for the night, and trying to manage the millions of smaller details of the evening. It is a fun, fast paced, highly social position, providing her with the perfect experience she will need to later work in the event planning industry. Samantha will graduate in July of 2013 with her bachelor’s degree in Business Management. She has obtained her primary emphasis, in marketing, and two complementary clusters, the first in Public Relations and the second in Family Consumer Science. Shortly after graduation Samantha plans to go back and make her living in the Wedding/Event Industry, working within the marketing, media relations, PR side of things. Since her first internship she has loved weddings and event planning and knew one day she would work with them closely. From her past internship and previous work experience she has found working within the industry is very exhilarating. She thrives off of sharing in the joy, love and happiness of so many individuals as they plan their special events.
