Graduation at the University of Wisconsin - Madison It Takes an International Village (Part 2 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, from elementary school through graduation at UW-Madison.
And Cann took advantage of the opportunities as they became apparent in his life.
“The first people I met on campus were PEOPLE alumni who had already experienced campus life,” Cann said. “Having that PEOPLE network was a large reason why I pledged my fraternity as well. I am a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Beta Omicron Chapter. I have had the opportunity to serve as the president for one year, a regional board member for two years. And I received a lot of accolades from the organization. I was recognized last year as the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Member in our region. And then I also had the opportunity to extend my philanthropic pursuits. Through Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, I’ve been responsible for being the chairman of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital fundraising in our region. Through the two years that I have been in that position, my region has raised over $70,000 for them. Actually, this is a large part of the reason why this summer, I will be interning in Memphis at St. Jude’s Research Hospital as part of their senior fundraising team.”
Cann found career inspiration from the people around him when he worked as a CNA at the Highland Campus of the Capri Community in Sun Prairie.
“I realized that the residents around me really appreciated having someone that supported them and their well-being and their mental health,” Cann observed. “And so I realized that I could make a lot of impact by focusing on the psychological space for multicultural communities. There are a lot of times when mental health isn’t as valued as it should be. And so I wanted to be the advocate for that to make sure that we are creating spaces where Black folk in particular but also Latin folks feel comfortable expressing themselves in terms of their mental health, their pain and seeking ways to provide better support for those communities, especially those who are immigrants.”
Sometimes PEOPLE Scholars are shell shocked when they arrive on the UW-Madison campus as freshmen and they are no longer part of a PEOPLE cohort in every class and activity. Cann was fortunate to be a part of a special living community as a freshman.
“I remember my first-year experience at a residential learning community, which is a themed learning community that focuses on the Black Diasporic experience and the history of the culture,” Cann said. “And so in this themed learning community, I was surrounded by all shades of the Diaspora and students who were exceeding at a high level who were Black at UW-Madison because they are the two-percent and that two-percent is extremely excellent. If I weren’t placed in such an environment, I wouldn’t have been able to see how excellent the Black community on campus can really be. When you are the two percent, it is easy to get drowned out. It’s easy for people to not even discover how excellent and how passionate the Black students on campus are.”
And then, like in middle and high school, PEOPLE was there for Cann while he studied at UW-Madison.
“PEOPLE actually fully-funded one of my first research conference presentations,” Cann said. “They’ve been instrumental in ensuring that I actually was able to complete a double major as well. Just staying in contact with me to ensure that I am checking in every semester, making sure I wasn’t ever in a position where I might not get the degree that I wanted. And so they’ve always been amazing support. They fund opportunities that are academic and they made my college experience tuition free. And so for that, I am forever grateful. I am a proud PEOPLE Scholar, proud PEOPLE Legacy and I really thank God for everything that PEOPLE has done for me.”
And Cann is grateful to the total UW-Madison environment.
“Truthfully, UW-Madison has been an extremely transformative experience,” Cann said. “I came here as a very naive young man who was seeking a lot of knowledge, but didn’t know how to attain it. I’ve become fully fluent in Spanish. I’ve gained a year of research experience in my first two APHD programs. I think the most amazing thing that I just can’t appreciate enough is the opportunity for UW-Madison to be recognized on a global level everywhere I go. They send students all over the world. And they have such an international presence. It’s rare that I tell someone I go to UW-Madison and they don’t know what I am talking about.”
This fall, Cann is taking a taking a side route to his dream of attaining a Ph.D. in psychology or counseling psychology.
“I applied to two schools, UW-Madison and Texas A&M,” both of which did not admit him. “I need to definitely expand where I am applying to and I applied only to very competitive programs.”
In the meanwhile, Cann will be back at UW-Madison this fall.
“I will be back on campus in the Recreation & Well-being Department as an intern,” Cann said. “I think now I have a stronger sense of how to apply and also I’ve been a part of the National Next-Gen Psych Scholars Program, which is a program that started at the University of Minnesota that supports students internationally seeking to become doctors in psychology.”
Cann feels that he can make a difference for people experiencing pain ion the community.
“My long-term goal is to become a pediatric pain psychologist or an international sports psychologist,” Cann said. “I want to continue to research like I currently do where I interview Spanish speakers experiencing chronic pain and explain that to different geriatric or pediatric populations and truly help improve the quality of life instead of falling into the biomedical thing that expects people who experience pain to just reduce their pain rather than focus on improving their daily functionality. I’m truly passionate about being housed in diverse communities and immigrant populations, especially linguistic need diverse populations. And I really want to see a change in the types of policies where we could be more culturally responsive to those who come through the health care system whose linguistic backgrounds may not align with the typical standard cast in those bilingual settings.”
Cann’s advice to incoming freshmen is to create or find your support system and never forget why you are at UW-Madison.
“Find support not only on campus, but beyond campus,” Cann advised. “There are a lot of support systems for a lot of different communities in Madison and a lot of people just never find out about them. It’s easy for us to not finish, so folks who do finish, you should be extremely grateful for everyone around you and your support system. And be proud of yourself, for sure. See it through. Do not be bewildered if you have to take an extra semester, that you need a little more time. Everyone’s journey looks different. No one’s journey is the same. Do not feel like you have to compare yourself to everyone else. One thing about the University of Wisconsin-Madison is that while it is very social, it is not forgiving academically. So if you would have to give something up, sometimes you have to sacrifice some social situations in order to meet your goals. Focus on yourself. But also focus on how you are contributing to your community.”
Cann believes attending UW-Madison is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Take full advantage of it.
“I say take advantage of every opportunity you can,” Cann emphasized. “I was part of the boxing club my freshman year. This isn’t something that I was heavily involved with, but it was something that I wanted to do. There are a lot of life skills that you can learn at UW-Madison that may not even be related to your major that you should definitely seek, whether it’s things that you are mostly interested in, things that are completely unrelated to your major or things that bring you even deeper into your field. Everything that you do here has an impact. So make the most out of how you use your time.”
Samuel Cann makes his international village of support proud.
