Samantha Koranteng intends to graduate from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA with her Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology and Public Policy in 2027.
Born in Petersburg, VA, Samantha’s Ghanaian-American family moved to Richmond, VA where she was raised. Throughout her childhood, she was placed into various academic programs that were stationed at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs), which showed her how differently the world viewed her from a very early age. Through this, she developed her own observances on racial disparities and saw how it affected those around her, as she lived in the less funded side of Henrico County but attended schools on the more funded side. She realized how unfair the circumstances were and how lucky she was to receive the opportunities she did and was determined to act upon it.
In 2023, she was selected as a William and Mary Scholar and decided to pursue her higher education at the institution. Since then, she has been involved in various organizations, such as Ebony Expressions Gospel Choir, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., African Cultural Society, and Civic Leadership, and hopes to aid in bringing back the NAACP. She intends to use all of these organizations to impact the minority community at William and Mary and is pursuing research on the BIPOC relationship and how it affects their academic success. She has an immense passion for social policy, advocacy, and justice for her community and aims to use her skills for its success.
Following graduation, she intends to gain work experience being employed at a government agency or non-profit and then hopes to obtain her Master’s in Public Policy and become an official policy analyst in D.C.