Graduation at the University of Wisconsin – Madison: It Takes an International Village (Part 1 of 2)
Samuel Cann has been in international community from his youth through his collegiate career.
by Jonathan Gramling
Samuel Cann, a UW-Madison PEOPLE Scholar who graduated in May, has thrived in the diverse environments that he grew up in in Madison. And he has been raised, in a way, by an international village that has given him support at every stage of his academic career.
Cann, whose people are from West Africa, was born and raised in Madison. And it was then African Diaspora that gave him the support and direction he needed to succeed in his personal life and his academic career.
“From a young age, I had a lot of support from the African community in Madison,” Cann said. “I went to a lot of events that were Afro-centric and culturally based in the Diaspora. Those events included Africa Fest, the Ghana and Nigerian independence days. Even at the church I go to now, the Living Springs International Church, they surround you with a lot of support. And they are truly about providing an amazing support system for students to be successful in college and also to get to college. As a Black male in Wisconsin where the odds are extremely against us — in fact Wisconsin is known to be one of the worst places to live or grow up as a Black man — they really changed those odds for me. They really helped me see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have doctors in the church. We have a lot of amazing people doing a lot of different things. I definitely give a shout-out to the African community that I’ve had growing up in Madison. Without the Ghanaian community, the Nigerian community, the West African community super strong, they have all shown a lot of support. It’s been amazing.”
Cann started his formal education at Hawthorne Elementary School.
“It was the most diverse school in the state,” Cann recalled. “My support system there was very robust. I was exposed to a lot of different cultures at a young age. It was actually like school with three languages, English Spanish and Hmong. I had the opportunity to be exposed to a wide range of cultures and learned a lot about others.”
Cann then went to Sherman Middle School and then on to East High School where he continued to thrive in and out of the classroom.
“I had the opportunity to serve as Black Student Union chair for two years and on the board for three years. I was also in the Africa Club. And I was in a lot of other organizations during that time. I played a lot of sports. But I would say that my support system was really unique at East High School because there was an expansion of diversity that I got at Hawthorne. The teachers at East really saw a light in me at such a young age. And so, I really took the opportunities that were given to me. A huge shout out to AVID-TOPS. They gave me the support that I needed.”
And it was the UW-Madison PEOPLE Program that gave him vital support during middle and high school and a door to opportunity.
“I’m actually a PEOPLE Legacy,” Cann said. “My brother was a member of the PEOPLE Program from middle school on. And I had the opportunity in spite of the fact that I was actually on the waiting list when I applied to PEOPLE the first time. Me being in the PEOPLE Program was truly my parents’ dream. They are African immigrants. It’s been a struggle to put their kids through college. They came here really late, so they haven’t had the same opportunities to save for their retirement as a lot of other people in their circles. They knew that the best shot I had was to go to school for free. And PEOPLE made that possible. PEOPLE provided me with every thing that I needed to be a successful student in college. My most memorable experiences, especially in middle school, were because of the PEOPLE Program. That really expanded my network in Wisconsin. I got to meet a lot of students from different schools who all ended up going to Wisconsin with me. The cohort that I started with in middle school, a lot of them are successful today and graduated with me this past Saturday. I give a shout-out to the PEOPLE Program for continuously being a support system for me.”
And PEOPLE allowed Cann to find his international village as a PEOPLE Scholar at UW-Madison.
“While I was at UW-Madison is when I had the first opportunity to leave the country,” Cann said. “I visited Ghana, West Africa. This led to a multitude of Study Abroad experiences. The first place I went to was fully funded as part of the UW-Madison Summer International Academic Program with Costa Rica. I had the opportunity to immerse myself in a culture different than mine in a host family. They really expanded my horizons. When I returned, I had the opportunity to go to Madrid, Spain and conduct research on Spanish-speaking communities that experience chronic pain. This was also a fully-funded trip in terms of tuition. These opportunities were some of the greatest lessons and things that I held close to me from my experience at UW-Madison. They’ve given me an international network. My network in Madison was extremely strong. But those study abroad experiences really highlighted how I could be in multiple settings.”
And PEOPLE gave Cann the support he needed on the UW-Madison campus. The office was a shelter in the storm.
“They were just always a place that I could go when I needed a snack, when I needed community really,” Cann said. “Without meeting university students from Wisconsin at a very young age — to this day, they’ve been seeing me graduating and they are like, ‘Wow, I saw this kid come through PEOPLE Program.’ — I could have been isolated. The PEOPLE network is extremely strong. I’m shouting out to the PEOPLE alumni. I am one now. They have been a huge part of my support system in terms of coming on campus.”
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