Ripple Effect - Samara Smith Alum Story - Encampment for Citizenship

Samara Smith, 2018 MS, works at an elementary school and also runs an after-school youth leadership program for youth 14–19, where she puts what she learned at the Encampment into action. She has applied to law school to become a legal advocate for students as a student rights attorney, a goal sparked by her EFC experience, where she learned about educational inequities that she sees daily in her work.

What did you learn at the Encampment?

I went in 2018 in Mississippi, and our program was focused around voting registration rights and educational inequities in MS. My dad’s family is from MS, so it was a good opportunity for me to feel more connected to that side of my identity. I didn’t know at the time, but I think a lot of my desire to become a legal advocate for students came from that experience — seeing how startlingly different education looked in MS versus where I’m from in Massachusetts. Of course, it’s not perfect here, but it’s really different. I remember they still had corporal punishment, which I thought was crazy. It definitely changed the way that I saw education in this country — how different it can look in our own country. I realized that I easily could have grown up in MS, and how different my life might have looked if I had. Click for a video excerpt.

I come from a family of educators — my mother and aunt are educators, but it was the way we talked about it and the experiences I had at the Encampment that really piqued my interest. I studied economics at Mount Holyoke. I wanted to do education policy or finance, and I found I liked the legal part of consulting. Working in a school, I see inequity every day, particularly the lack of resources: the difference between what students need and what they get. I want to have an impact on the way education works on a greater scale; for instance, on the government level.

I learned a lot about the Civil Rights Movement. I learned about different cultures. It was the first time I met Indigenous people and first time I went to the Choctaw reservation — I remember that so clearly. I got to see my [EFC] friends perform traditional dances, and I watched a game of stickball and ate frybread. That was really cool to me and something I would never have gotten to do at home.

How has the Encampment influenced your life?

It has influenced my life in a few ways. It piqued my interest in economics and education. It also gave me an opportunity to leave home before college — it’s a taste of that: You go away, you’re around strangers, you have to figure out how to make friends. At the Encampment, you get close to people really fast. I can be shy at times and it helped me get out of my shell. It helped me learn new things and be open. It also gave me a community of people who care about different issues.

The topics you talk about at the Encampment, you don’t get an opportunity to talk about when you are in high school. At least, I didn’t at my public school. I learned about different topics and thought about different issues from different angles, from perspectives I usually wouldn’t have. Everyone brings their own background to their conversations — you usually don’t get that until you go to college. You have really deep conversations. Another thing is that my cousin A’Shaela [click for her story] attended the Encampment before me and it was really important to her. She said she learned a lot. As a younger cousin, I followed along and wanted to get involved and connected to that opportunity as well.

Why is the EFC important now?

We always say “young people are the future and we are going to change things,” but when you are in high school, you often are not really talking about these issues in person. You might be in an online group that’s talking about them or you might see social media posts about them, but talking about them in person and actually meeting people whose lives are affected — that’s different. Click for video excerpt.

Also, the Encampment is important because it matters to be able to verbalize the issues — actually talk out loud, talk to other people, get their point of view, and learn how to disagree with them as well. Having conversations in person is so helpful. Conversations online can get superficial or too niche. You might create a bubble for yourself where you think everyone cares about something, but it’s not necessarily real.

We all came from different backgrounds and had different ideas. What united us was we were there and we were willing to learn and willing to discuss different topics. Even in the Encampment, there are going to be people you are not going to like, that you’ll disagree with or not understand their perspective. At the end, though, even if I didn’t agree with everyone, or left a conversation feeling a certain kind of way because of something someone said, I still had respect for them because I was learning; I was open to learning about different places, different people, different ideas. It was a good lesson to learn at that age. This type of program would fit easily in a college setting, but it’s so valuable [for younger people] because you are learning how to discuss issues at such a young age.

I went to my first InterGen this summer. It was nice being a little bit older and hearing high schoolers speak … be so excited about something. I work with teenagers and in our little group together, they are so excited — but then they present like they don’t care. To see teenagers excited about something made me excited. It’s nice to see teenagers excited and passionate and wanting to talk to each other and have an opportunity to talk to adults about issues. I just loved hearing them share their ideas and their passion about where they are from and the amazing things they are organizing at home or the ideas they have for when they go back to school. It’s just wonderful.

How did the Encampers get along? How did this change over the time you were together?

In the beginning, we were all shy and didn’t want to talk much. As time went on, we were spending more time together and we wanted to talk more with each other. Also, there was a willingness to have deep discussions more often. You are always twirling — you are seeing a new museum, hearing a new speaker, learning a new song … you’re always learning about something. As time went on, we were debriefing during lunch or debriefing when we were getting ready for the morning. You are talking about it on the bus ride to the next place or talking about your feelings, which I feel like we don’t often do when we are 16.

2018 Mississippi Encampment at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.
Dedication. Click images to enlarge.
Fellow Encamper Nevin Chin looking at the names inscribed on the stones.

There were emotional experiences. I remember we went to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and, of course, I’d been to museums before, but at this place, I was looking for family names. We went to the Emmett Till Museum and the B.B. King Museum. With my background, being African American and my family being from that area, I didn’t know how it would affect me. It was nice to be able to talk with my roommate, who was Mexican. This was not her background, but she could still listen to me talk about how I was feeling. We could so relate to each other.

This summer, when I went to the 2025 InterGen in California, I got to hear all of these immigration stories and ICE stories. I think if I had gone to the Encampment in CA, I’m not saying I wouldn’t have emotional experiences, but I could have been more of a comfort to somebody else. I would have been more of a shoulder for my roommate when at the time, she was more of a shoulder to me. I think you never know the different impact changing locations might make. In my experience in the Encampment, I was sharing more about my background in sessions and people were listening. If the Encampment were in a different location, it might have been reversed and I would have gotten something totally different out of the experience.

What would you say to someone who was thinking about applying to the Encampment?

I would tell them to apply. It’s a good opportunity for you to build community, and advocacy and leadership skills. You never know how it will affect your life. When I first applied, it was because my cousin had gone to the Encampment and I viewed it like a summer camp. It is summer camp, but I didn’t know it would affect how I think about things, my discussion skills, a little taste of college life.

It has shown me how to think from another person’s perspective, which is an invaluable skill. You never know where it will lead you in the future. You never know what kind of connection you’ll gain from it. Also, it’s fun — you’ll have a lot of fun. I liked the songs and dances and theater part of the Encampment — we created our own show at the end. I loved singing with Jane. After I came back from the InterGen, a lot of the songs came back to me and I just jumped back in. It’s just a good time. It inspired me to structure the program I lead now with a capstone project where they dress up, make a capstone presentation, network, pretend they are at a business meeting. It’s a good skill to develop.

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