Aspiring lawyer Samantha Taylor lives her life fighting for the causes she’s passionate about.
“If I’m presented with an opportunity but find that it challenges my principles or the type of impact that I’ve committed myself to making, I immediately know that it’s not worth it,” said the University of Chicago fourth year.
Taylor, a double major in public policy and philosophy, has now been given the opportunity to continue her education in social justice and public policy after being named a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. She plans to attend Stanford Law School beginning this fall with a focus on civil rights and criminal law.
The Knight-Hennessy program provides each scholar with up to three years of support to earn a graduate studies degree from Stanford and is awarded to students who are attempting to address complex challenges that face the global population. For Taylor, an Odyssey Scholar, the chance to continue her education without having to worry about costs that are usually associated with the journey is priceless.
Her ongoing work stems from growing up in Chicagoland and dealing with the impacts of racial inequity and mass incarceration—not only on communities, but directly in her life.
“I remember being present at a mass shooting during an eighth-grade graduation party,” said Taylor. “This and other experiences have and continue to shape my life, and influence how I enter into different spaces and situations.”
The summer of 2020 and the civil right movements that came after the deaths of George Floyd and Trayvon Martin gave Taylor her social compass and cemented the way she wants to make a difference.
“That time period has always been at the forefront of how I’ve viewed society,” she said. “Because I’ve been given so much access to education without burden, I feel like it’s my responsibility to go forward in life using this opportunity to lift people up that don’t have the tools to solve the issues that my family, friends and neighbors have lived with.”
Her time at UChicago has included a wealth of research and internships with the university’s Institute of Politics, the Policing Project in New York City, and both the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. These experiences helped guide the next steps toward her professional career.
“My goal is to address mass incarceration and how it disproportionately affects Black people,” said Taylor. “The best opportunity for me to do that would be in a public defense capacity where I’m able to directly help, but I am also interested in focusing on systemic intervention through appellate law..”
Her sights are also set on goals even farther down the road—eventually she wants to transition into politics, to be “an even bigger advocate for legislation that helps build towards a world that I feel is more representative of equity and justice.”
Taylor credited her philosophy degree with giving her the “critical mindset” to pursue new social solutions, as called for by the Knight-Hennessy program. More broadly, she said the university gave her the necessary confidence to strive for all her goals.
“It’s a place that allows you to ask the big questions in pursuit of knowledge and truth,” she said. “UChicago allows you to take yourself down avenues that can challenge the status quo, or the normative standard of what people accept the world to be.”
Taylor received interview support from the College’s Office of National Fellowships, which supports College students and alumni who apply for nationally competitive awards, such as Knight-Hennessy. The National Fellowships team helps students identify and articulate how their unique talents and distinctive paths prepare them to realize a better world.