Staff: Samantha Hamilton

Just like the history she enjoys, Samantha Hamilton understands how the work she does today can shape the futures of students at East Carolina University.

Hamilton is nearing her fourth anniversary as an administrative assistant to the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of English in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences.

She works closely with the advising staff to ensure student records are up to date and enjoys helping students see academic opportunities they may not see themselves.

“There’s been a couple of times where I’ll review students’ records a year or two before they graduate, and I can see if you take this summer class or if you take this combination of classes, you might graduate a semester early,” Hamilton said. “Or I can see that you have all of these classes and if you take this one extra class, you can get this certificate also or a double minor. I really like helping out with that.”

She said the favorite part of her job is helping students.

“I do get students who will just pop in from time to time with sometimes some strange questions, but it’s fun. I like to help them out,” she said. “I had a student sit in my office for about two hours, and I helped him pick out every single class he was going to register for. He wanted to know about his teachers, the building the class was in and how far the buildings were apart. I looked up each class that was available to him, where it was, who was teaching it and if he could get from this class to that class in enough time.”

Hamilton, who has nine siblings, grew up in Las Vegas.

“I tell everyone that growing up in Vegas was like growing up in any other big city, except that my prom and graduation were both in casinos,” she said.

She was part of her high school’s junior ROTC program but never envisioned a career in the military.

“I always told people that I wasn’t going into the military, that it wasn’t what I really wanted to do,” she said. “I just wanted to study, but as it got closer to graduation, I had no idea how I was going to pay for that, and the recruiter made it sound really great. I joined the reserves first of all and did that for a few years and then I went active duty.”

Samantha Hamilton rides a zip line while in the U.S. Army. She served for 12 years, working in logistics management, before coming to ECU. (Contributed photo)

She worked in logistics management in the Army for 12 years but realized she wanted more.

“I really enjoyed my time in the Army, but toward the end, I realized what I was doing, it didn’t mean anything. I wasn’t making a difference really,” she said. “I enjoyed it because I was good at it. People respected me because I was good at my job, but I realized that if I wasn’t doing it, nothing would change. So, working with the students here is really important. It’s more rewarding honestly, and I wasn’t expecting that.”

She draws inspiration from her stepmother, former ECU hospitality management instructor Terrie Hamilton. She obtained a master’s degree as a single mother, recently earned her doctoral degree and now works at Purdue University.

“She and I are very similar,” Samantha Hamilton said. “She’s actually the reason why when I got out of the Army, I moved to Greenville.”

Like her stepmother, Samantha Hamilton is raising a son on her own, 8-year-old Tobias, while also working full time and pursuing a degree in history, finding a way to somehow balance her time. In a year of working mostly from home during the pandemic, she also homeschooled her son.

“We finished second and third grade,” she said. “That was really fun. I had a blast but balancing everything is complicated sometimes.”

With everything she has going on, she tries to take advantage of what free time she does get.

“I love to read, hike, go camping and take care of the many houseplants I acquired during the pandemic,” she said. “Of course, being a single parent, working full time, in school full time and homeschooling my son this past year, I haven’t had much time for ‘me’ stuff. I’m really looking forward to finishing up my degree so I can have a little more free time.”

She expects to complete her degree in history in December.

“I’ve been interested in history since a really young age,” she said. “What I enjoy about it is understanding how things that happened in the past — you don’t realize — but it has a very direct impact on how the world is today. I like studying European history and the monarchies and how interconnected they were and, because they were rulers of a country, how their personal relationships affected politics around the world.”

She said she’s uncertain what she’ll do with her history degree, but she knows she’s not done with her education.

“I’m definitely going after another one (degree), but I’ll probably take a year off at least and catch my breath, but I’m definitely going to keep going,” she said. “If I didn’t have to have a specific degree, I’d love to just be at school and study all the time. If that could be my job, that would be perfect.”

FAST FACTS

Name: Samantha Hamilton

Title: Administrative assistant to the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of English

Hometown: Las Vegas

Colleges attended and degrees: I will finish my Bachelor of Arts in European history this semester.

PIRATE PRIDE

Years working at ECU: Four years in December

What I do at ECU: I work closely with the undergraduate director and English faculty advisors, building the schedule in Banner and making adjustments to students’ records.

What advice do you give to students? People always ask me what I plan to do with a history degree. I tell them I have no idea — yet! I feel like a lot of people see college as a necessary box to check on your way into the workforce. For me, it’s about pursuing passions and discovering new ones. I have been fascinated with history from a very early age. That is why I made the decision to study it, not because I knew that it would lead to a higher-paying job. To any person who is in college or thinking about continuing their education, whether they are 18 or 80, I would say: If you know exactly what you want to do after school that’s great, but don’t be afraid if you don’t have a plan! If you are lucky enough to get to go to college — and remember so many people will never get that opportunity — soak up as much as you can and enjoy every minute of it.

QUICK QUIZ

Last thing I watched on TV: “Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans” on Netflix. The entire “Tales of Arcadia” franchise is amazing!

First job: I joined the Army at 17 and left for basic training two weeks after graduating high school.

Guilty pleasure: I’ve watched every “Star Trek” show and movie (including the animated series from the 1970s) in order, twice.

Favorite meal: Tacos!

One thing most people don’t know about me: I have nine siblings.