On Friday, October 20, the Alma Media Team and the addition of a few other students had the opportunity to listen to guest speaker Samantha Benish. Samantha graduated as the Alma class of 2019 valedictorian. After graduating, she went on to study journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Following four years of long, hard work, she graduated with two gold-winning articles and academic distinction in the top 20% of her class.
She was invited to inform the students on how to write articles, The Daily Cardinal newspaper, different classes you can enroll in at Madison if you are studying journalism, and internships that she had accepted in that specific field. Sam educated us about her favorite class and what she accomplished participating in it. For example, Sam completed the semester-long course, J417. During this class, Sam and 20 other of her pupils created an entire magazine that covered the whole state of Wisconsin. In the magazine, Sam had the honor of writing about Alma, featuring the Pier 4 Cafe!
One of the major things Sam was asked to talk about was her time at the Daily Cardinal newspaper. The Daily Cardinal is a student-ran, nonprofit newsletter. The Cardinal has a variety of different topics that its authors can pick and choose from. Sam’s first two years at the Cardinal she spent her time specifically just writing. At the end of Sam’s sophomore year, she was granted the title of the editor of Life and Style for her junior year. She shared with us the busy schedule she had as an editor. Her senior year, Sam stepped down from editor and went back to only writing.
After college, she took a complete turn of events when she decided to travel the country driving the Oscar Mayer Wienermoblie. Everyone knows this 27-foot-long hot dog on wheels. Over 2,000 people applied for the job. Sam is one of 12 people in the whole country to be able to explore with the Wienermobile. Sam and her partner “Ketchup Karson” were assigned to the Southeast region of the United States. Every week Sam and Karson travel to a different state to put smiles on everyone's faces. At the end of her presentation, Sam granted everyone the special wiener whistle that you can only get when you go see a Wienermobile at an event.
The students are extremely grateful for all the knowledge they have from Sam’s presentation. Even through all she has accomplished, Sam remembered to stay humble and always remember her roots.
Written by: Tori Creighton