Samantha Knapp

A little about myself…
Hi, my name is Sam aka Samantha. I came to Oakland University to continue my study in Japanese/Asian cultures and languages. I’ve always had a knack for picking up and understanding different languages. It started when I was in grade school when we had a teacher that would go from class to class once a week teaching French. It grew from there and by time I was in Junior high I was in Spanish and German classes. It also helped that my sister was learning Spanish and I’m part German, so it just clicked.
I became interested in the Japanese and Asian cultures from listening to Kpop, Jpop, watching Anime and playing RPG Games like Genshin Impact. It opened a whole new world that was fascinating and something I wanted to explore more. It’s been my dream to study abroad and to see different cultures and learn their ways and languages.
When I was in Junior High School, I was studying German and was also signed up to go to Germany as an exchange student with my girlfriend that was in my Girl Scout Troop for 9th grade. When the beginning of ninth grade started, I became very ill, and it was so bad that I eventually had to be home schooled from 9th grade until my senior year in High School. I was determined to never let my illness end my dream to study abroad or to stop me from being a top-notch student either. Ninth grade was a tarnish on my grades because of the miscommunications between the faculty and learning a new home-schooling system but looking at my transcripts you can really see what I did and can achieve with lots of perseverance and hard work.
When I was kindergarten, I joined the Girl Scouts of America’s organization and stayed with them until the end of 8th grade. My troop was dissolved, and I was looking to join a new troop in ninth grade when I became sick. I learned a lot, traveled even more, and lived out loud with the friends I made. I wanted to enter the Ambassador Program, but I needed to continue with Girl Scouts into High School. Who knows, maybe I can sign up to work at Girl Scout Camp or still be an honorary Girl Scout. We learned and did so many things in our troop, that was great. I think my favorite project was “Dresses for African Girls”.
Our troop sewed all these dresses out of pillowcases to send to Africa. I want to say we sewed over 70 dresses for all the girls. We had a fashion show at our Elementary School and my sister was the emcee to showcase all the dresses we sewed, took pictures, and wrote letters to the girls in Africa. It was a special time for all of us in the troop. It felt so good knowing that we were doing something for girls our age, in another country, that needed clothes amongst other things.
These are just some of the foundational reasons why I’d like to travel to other countries and learn there. I honestly believe that the best way to take it all in as a whole is by being amongst the people you’d like to know more about.