A quick note:
I’ll start by saying: I do not believe myself to be skilled at writing these. I’ve had a very, very full 23 1/2 years, so I feel like writing it all is too much, leaving things out is too little, and explaining my self-edits might be perceived as overly nitpicky. I’ve decided to include the things most relevant to who I am at the moment, and go from there.
Samantha Searles grew up in Southern New Hampshire, the oldest child to two adoptive parents, and the youngest child of five biological children. She grew up with a younger sister, also adopted (no relation), who is still her best friend. From a young age, Searles enjoyed telling long, elaborate stories, dressing up in costume, and, at around age six, making news stories. She would have her dad (the original Sam), hold a camcorder while she held her fist in a tight circle and “report” on what was happening – where they were, what the weather was like, and more.
As she got older, the love of stories transitioned to the love of writing, and at around age 12, she began to publish and write a “newspaper” for the other kids at her church. If the adults got a bulletin every week, she thought, the kids should get something at least once a month. She “hired” other kids to write and eventually added sections on news, jokes, and a comic strip.
Searles was homeschooled from Kindergarten through the end of high school, and was fortunate enough to be involved in many projects, teams, and partnerships because of a more relaxed schedule. Between discovering coding at FIRST Lego League, starting Drama classes at a homeschool group, and taking ski and swim lessons depending on the season, Searles was able to experience many different careers and lifestyles early on.
There were three that were the most formative.
First: Drama. Beginning in 6th grade, Searles landed a leading role in a comedy production and was forever changed. By the end of high school, she had joined New Hampshire’s Palace Youth Theatre and was the recipient of the first Dayna Brunelli Memorial Scholarship. After high school, Searles went on to have roles in both Community and Professional productions. The theater gave her confidence and training – so much of Broadcasting, she later found out, was theatre. Keep calm under pressure, control your breathing, your audience is everything.
The second formative experience was TeenPact. This program brought homeschooled students into their individual state Capitols for a 4-day program. Students were expected to dress professionally, come to the first day with drafts of original legislative bills to be voted on in a mock session, and contact their state legislators in advance. This program was the beginning of Searles’ love of politics – while in the first year she was a more quiet observer, the second year she ran for TeenPact Senate and won in both that year and the next. By her last year, she realized that the program was right-leaning, and began to have opposing ideas. She caught the attention of a former TeenPact student, who connected her with a NH State Representative. That representative ran the New Hampshire Legislative Youth Advisory Council, and Searles joined and served as Community Outreach Director there for three years.
The NH LYAC was Searles’ first experience with community engagement – she taught herself how to run a Facebook page, write a press release, and run social media accounts while still a sophomore in high school. The LYAC met with international delegations, wrote for and against statements for bills, and lobbied legislators about youth-issues (most notably introducing partially-online driver’s education and keeping NH seatbelt laws in place.)
The final experience was not one particular event, but simply being alive and tuned in to world news at the time. Searles knew who Barack Obama was, of course, but didn’t realize until his second term as President began that the world was not as unified as she’d believed. There were more news pieces that were inflammatory or biased, and there were not enough people who looked like her relaying the news. By junior year of high school, Donald Trump was calling journalists the enemy of the American people, and Searles noticed. When she told friends and family that she planned to study Journalism, the reactions she got were all-too-telling. While she didn’t work in the News section of New Hampshire Public Radio during her internship there in 2019, Searles got to watch journalists of every kind go about their work for two months straight – fact-checking, writing, recording, editing, and more. This time was where Searles developed her voice – welcoming and factual.
Just after her first full semester after transferring to Suffolk University, the Covid-19 Pandemic arose in the United States, forcing Searles to leave Boston without and opportunity for internships, work-study, or much in-studio work.
She was fortunate enough to secure an internship with Skillsoft, the learning company, in their Communications team, where she was quickly placed in an administrative assistance role for The Edge podcast.
Once classes resumed, Searles was thrilled to find that she’d been selected for the Suffolk In The City program as well as an internship with Framingham’s Source Media. She produced monthly packages for Suffolk In the City and multiple publications for Source.
Searles graduated in May of 2021 with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism with a Broadcast concentration. A few weeks after graduation, she worked as an anchor for Tyngsborough TV’s Candidate Forum special. She spent the summer co-writing a new walking tour for History Alive and working as a film extra in Atlanta, Georgia.
She was accepted in the 2022-2023 Report For America program and, as of June 1st, works for WHYY in Philadelphia as a Gun Violence and Prevention Reporter.
She can be reached ssearles@whyy.org.
Sam Searles 