- Samantha Corcoran

Four Times and Going Back for More

       Why would a freshman in college want to go to Alaska for their fifth time with a bunch of eighth graders? Well, Samantha Howard says that she went as an eighth grader and it was the coolest thing she’d ever done. You would think that the first two or three times visiting Alaska would be enough for anyone, but not for Howard. Howard says “As long as my parents keep saying I can go, I will keep going.” I cried last year when all of my friends went as junior leaders except for me. It was my first year not going since the eighth grade.”

       Howard, a short haired brunette with a spunky personality, originally took the opportunity as an eighth grader because she had moved to Marshall as a seventh grader and all of her friends bombarded her asking if she was going to go to Alaska. Howard didn’t have a clue about what the trip would be like but decided to go because she thought it sounded like a cool opportunity. Howard says one quality she believes a person needs to have in order to go to Alaska for three weeks with eighty other people is to be open minded. “You will become friends with people who you never thought you would. You’ll just start talking one time and you’ll end up telling each other your whole life story.”

       Howard says, “I wouldn’t really change much about the trip except at the campsite in Fairbanks when there is not very much to do. I wish we could have had more free time in the city.” Even on her first trip, Howard never really got homesick. As an eighth grader, she traveled to Japan, so she knew what it was like to be away from home.

       “Being in Japan where they didn’t speak the same language was hard, but in Alaska I felt better because I knew people understood me. After you go to Alaska, you can accomplish anything,” says Howard.

       Samantha Howard’s favorite part of the trip is Homer, Alaska. This is the final part of the trip and you pretty much have already bonded with everyone. “It’s the most beautiful too,” she says.

       Howard says although she loves the 49th state she would never consider living in Alaska because she would miss her family too much. “I did consider for a long time going to college there at the University of Fairbanks,” says Howard. She doesn’t know how many more years she’ll continue going but she says it’s hard when you’re attending college and you don’t have a summer job. Samantha Howard - four times to Alaska, and not done yet.