The Alumni Relations Committee of the Alumni Association Council is pleased to recognize Samantha Massingale Gerth '91for her outstanding volunteer work on behalf of the College.

Building Community: Online, On Campus, and On Track

- Dorothy Smardack Palmer '62

Samantha Massingale Gerth's devotion to Grinnell College comes from a conviction that her education at the College was transformative and gave her something she couldn't get anywhere else. This conviction motivates her to share her Grinnell experience with others. But Samantha's transition from high school to college was not easy. Samantha's transition to Grinnell was so overwhelming that she describes that first semester like being "hit by a train."

Samantha was a first-generation college student; and at her inner city Chicago school, one guidance counselor was assigned to 2,000 students. So the family turned to a community service agency for help. A Grinnell admission representative and volunteer at the agency saw Samantha's potential and encouraged her to apply to Grinnell. Fortunately, the family knew someone who had attended Grinnell - Grinnell's first black woman graduate, Edith Renfrow Smith '37. Samantha's mother worked as a school secretary at the same school where the highly regarded Smith taught.

When the time came to make a college decision, Samantha's mother wanted her to stay close to home and choose a college in the Chicago area. Her father, who Samantha describes as a meat cutter with horse sense, encouraged her to leave the state for Iowa, where she could be on her own and learn to make decisions for herself.

She took his advice and chose Grinnell, but it was not an easy adjustment. At Grinnell, she faced many changes: from urban Chicago to rural Iowa; from a large inner-city high school to a small college where she was part of a racial minority; and the change to a more challenging curriculum that required some academic catch-up.

But Grinnell proved to be an excellent choice and a great experience. Samantha got the support and encouragement to seek the resources she needed, and she gained confidence in her abilities and learned to work with a wide variety of people. "It's a place that always teaches you to think of possibilities," she says. Four years later, she returned to Chicago with a degree in American studies, and she didn't hesitate to get involved as an alumni admission volunteer.

After college, Samantha's first fulltime job was as an admission counselor at the Illinois Math and Science Academy. Her professional career in higher education, specifically counseling and student personnel work, has made her a natural at communicating with prospective students. As an admission volunteer, she talks with prospective students, staffs or finds others to help with college nights for students and parents, and provides support for the College's multicultural admission effort in Chicago. She is an outspoken advocate for small liberal arts colleges, and Grinnell in particular, as great preparation for further education and life in general. Today she is one of two regional admission coordinators responsible for the volunteer effort in the Chicago area.

She earned an M.A. in counseling at Loyola University, and went on to serve as a special assistant to the dean of students at Benedictine University. She and husband Mark Gerth '88 are the parents of three children (Warren, 8; Jude Trenton, 4; and Bryce, 4 months). Shortly after the birth of her first child, she agreed to serve a three-year term on the Grinnell College Alumni Council, which meets on campus. She has also served on her class committee and has taken an active role in reunion planning.

For the past five years, while focusing on her family, Samantha's volunteer involvement has taken a new direction. Former Professor of History Tom Hietala, one of her favorite faculty members at Grinnell, helped put her in touch with two young alumni with whom he felt she would have much in common: Sherman Willis '01 and Moses Mason '99. With the support of the College's alumni relations program, they initiated a Yahoo Listserv to bring African American alumni back in touch with one another, the College, and with volunteerism. Samantha says, "It began as a place to let your hair down." A year later, the success of the project prompted the College to sponsor its own Grinnell Listserv of black alumni with almost 100 participants, maintained by Sherman and Samantha. Students are also invited to take part. Samantha sees the Listserv as a place where alumni can share both unique and common experiences and keep in touch with the College and one another. It also provides an opportunity for networking and supporting current students. She loves the idea of seeing black alumni engaged with the College; she hopes the technology will encourage communication and a shared sense of history among alumni.

At Reunion Weekend 2008, Samantha and other volunteers helped plan the College's second Black Alumni Reunion. Participants stayed in Hannibal Kershaw Hall on East Campus and took part in social events, a panel on diversity, and informal discussions with one another and with College staff members, including Elena Bernal '94, special assistant to the president for diversity and achievement. David White '90, chair of the Grinnell College Board of Trustees, addressed the alumni at a special dinner. Samantha was pleased with the interest and energy generated at the reunion and noted that, perhaps as a result of the reunion, more black alumni than ever before attended the annual picnic in Chicago this summer for incoming students and their parents.

Samantha sees her fellow alumni as the most valuable, consistent, and under-utilized resource for mentoring current students. This mentoring can begin with alumni support of new students experiencing their own first semesters away from home at Grinnell. In a broader sense, alumni can offer the impetus and energy to help the College move forward in its efforts to promote diversity and to provide the best educational opportunity for all its students. Alumni can keep the conversation alive by keying alumni into the issues of diversity at Grinnell.

With a new baby in the family, Samantha's focus this year will be helping little Bryce through her first year. After that, she says, she would be open to a part-time position in student personnel, perhaps at a community college in her area. But it seems Samantha will always make time for her work as a Grinnell alumni volunteer. The Alumni Association Council is pleased to recognize this outstanding young alumna for her continuing commitment to the College, its students, and fellow alumni.


January 2008 Honoree: Beverly Burd Stubbee '48
March 2008 Honoree: David Rosenbaum '78
May 2008 Honoree: Emily Westergaard '02
July 2008 Honoree: Audrey "Bunny" Howard Swanson '43