At Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA), Erin Samueli (MT, ‘12) explored the idea of a career in education after being inspired by the teaching style of her physics teacher, Mr. Stephen Kulick. She said she wanted to become the teacher that makes students feel excited about science, even if they may not have enjoyed it otherwise. After spending time in the classroom, Samueli found herself using her skills from OCSA and her work background to devote herself to supporting underrepresented and underserved communities.
Samueli attended Boston University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in science education and after earned her master’s degree in education from Stanford University. She was a middle school science teacher in the San Francisco Bay area before realizing that this dream she had been chasing for seven years wasn’t her end goal.
During Samueli’s second year of teaching, she began to explore the world of philanthropy that had been a constant in her family throughout her life.With a nudge from her mother, Susan, she became involved with the Maverick Collective where she worked closely with a team in Ethiopia to get comprehensive reproductive health education into the school system using human-centered design principles. Samueli and her team developed a program called Fanos, which means “a light on your path” in the Ethiopian language. Through Fanos, community health workers empower young girls to make educated decisions about their futures with the necessary support that allow them to achieve their dreams.
Currently, Samueli serves as the director of Social Justice Philanthropy for the Samueli Foundation. In her work, she focuses on supporting individuals, groups and organizations led by and for many varying underrepresented and underserved communities, in addition to overseeing collaborations to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
“I realized very quickly that being a teacher and doing philanthropy, while the jobs look very different, the goals are pretty much exactly the same. I'm trying to affect positive change in individuals' lives. I realized that I could be effecting positive change on a daily basis in a really significant way, so I came to work for my family foundation about six months ago,” she said.
Although Samueli is new to this work, she said that it’s already been a beautiful experience to build deep, trusting relationships with others who are doing such incredible things for the community and the world. She said she is humbled to open the door for these amazing people doing impactful work and to be their cheerleader. Samueli is also grateful for her performance training at OCSA because she said without it, she would likely not be as successful in her philanthropic endeavors.
“OCSA gave me the skills to be a performer, right? And that word seems very literal, a performer on stage, but it's more broad than that. A big part of this job is to be a force for bringing people together and coming to a shared understanding, which can be challenging, especially because I do social justice work. I fundamentally believe that my training as a performer did so much in the way of allowing me to be a charismatic presence…I have that ability to summon this ‘Sasha Fierce-esque’ alter ego, to be a force for social change and a force for good. I deeply attribute those skills to OCSA showing me how to be a good performer,” Samueli said.
Samueli said she was also greatly impacted by the unique arts culture at OCSA because she was able to understand the power of authenticity in a place where acceptance is the standard, expression was built into the schedule and each person’s individuality is the coolest thing about them. As an adolescent, she was never searching for an opportunity to pour out her feelings because OCSA gave her a daily outlet for self expression. At a time when most adolescents are striving for conformity and perfection, Samueli said she was empowered to be exactly who she is.
“That kid over there has ears and a tail on, that kid over there is wearing lipstick all over their face and no one is talking about it because it’s the least interesting thing happening. Having that energy around me in my formative years has really made me become a person who values authenticity over everything else, which allows me to be better in my professional work of supporting social justice organizations and showing up appropriately for my grantees,” she said.
This weekend, Samueli will make her way back to the stage, performing as a guest artist for OCSA’s gala, “Night of a Million Dreams.” She said she’s ecstatic to return to the stage with fellow alumni and current OCSA students after such a long hiatus.
In addition to helping her alma mater celebrate its milestone anniversary year, Samueli is working hard for the Samueli Foundation to support important local organizations like Alianza Translatinx, the first transgener-led organization by transgender people of color in Orange County, Sacred Places Institute, an Indigenous-led, community-based organization and much more. She also has not stopped pursuing art and spends her personal time collaborating with her husband in their band 37 Houses.
Samueli said that looking back on her time at OCSA, and after hearing stories about others’ high school experiences, she wishes she would have taken the time to appreciate her experience so much more. With that in mind, she had one message for OCSA students…
“Students, just soak it up. Drink it all in while you can!”