Hey there!
You've reached the writer's website of Samantha Caminker (that's me!), student at U of M and a member of the Minor in Writing program. I made this website to house a sample of writing created for the MiW gateway course, Writing 220. The sample—helpfully labeled in the website menu as "Writing 220 sample"—focused on my experiences this past summer at Middlebury College's School of Hebrew for a 7-week intensive Hebrew study program. This reflective essay (along with everything else I wrote for this class) considers human connection and relationships in a second language, hence this site's title.
I also included on this site other samples of my writing from the past few years. You may notice that I included a couple Hebrew samples. Given that my time at Middlebury is central to this whole project, I felt that it would only be fitting to honor my passion for the language that Middlebury ignited by sharing some of my work in Hebrew.
A little about me
I'm currently a student at the University of Michigan, class of '28. I'm planning to major in Judaic Studies and Cognitive Science with minors in Writing (you probably guessed that already) and Science, Technology, and Society. I've carved out a really great place for myself at this school, including multiple clubs and positions at the U of M Hillel and in the Judaic Studies department.
For all that I enjoy writing, I'm not very good at writing an about-me! So here are some fun facts about me in no particular order:
1) My favorite novel is Catch-22 and my favorite author is Chuck Palahniuk
2) I've had lots of pet rats, and during one period my family had 13 at once
3) I am one of those people who still devotedly plays Pokemon Go
4) I have a much too large tote bag collection for no good reason
5) I enjoy biking and sincerely believe that having a bike on campus improves the college experience by at least 20%
Groovy tunes alert!
I am a firm believer that you can learn a lot about a person based on what music they like—so I figured it would be cool to include some of my favorite tracks alongside my "about me" and my writer's portfolio. Get to know me through this Spotify playlist, curated just for this website.