Meeting alumna, Samantha Hunt for the first time feels like meeting an old friend. A strong, confident and outgoing personality, proud to have been named Head Student in 1986 and one of few awarded a scholarship. Sam is grateful for her Luckley education that holds fond memories of a fun and friendly community. An education that influenced her life decisions and helped shape her younger character. Inspired by her Religious Studies lessons, Sam left Luckley a devout Christian. After studying Theology at the University of Birmingham, Sam continued with her philanthropic work, leading to an MBE in 2020 – proof of her strong Christian values and outstanding citizenship.
BEING THE CHANGE
After completing her PGCE at the University of Cambridge, Sam’s first employment was as a Religious Studies teacher, first at Yateley and then at Sandhurst School, where she has held various positions over the past 32 years, including Head of Religious Studies. Today, Sam is Deputy Headteacher and Head of Safeguarding at Corvus Learning Trust. She is a past winner of the Secondary School Teacher of the Year award, where nominations were made by her students. She talks of her students accompanying her to fulfil charitable work, to the refugee camps in Calais, for example. Sam explains that it is here where strong friendships are forged, charitable work and fundraising efforts realised. Her aim is to inspire her students to be active “upstanders”, rather than passive bystanders – encouraged by witnessing the oppression and abuse of fellow human beings. Sam’s motto is “be the change that you want to see in the world.”
Sam has long been fascinated with the prevention of genocide – leading her to charitable work in Bosnia, Poland, Germany and Rwanda. Educating young people and teachers in training about the Holocaust, Sam is a trained guide for Auschwitz Birkenau, Poland and Bergen Belsen, Germany, as well as a Holocaust Educational Trust volunteer and 2003 winner of the Anne Frank Inspirational Teacher of the Year award. She is also an academic advisor for Remembering Srebrenica – paying tribute to the victims of genocide in Bosnia, where close to 100,000 civilians were killed, over 2 million people forcibly displaced, and between 20,000 – 50,000 women systematically raped. All due to their ethnic and religious identity.
REACHING RWANDA
While speaking at an event for former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, a chance meeting with a Rwandan refugee inspired Sam to travel to Rwanda in 2006 and meet survivors of the genocide against the Tutsi. This first visit had a profound effect. Sam describes two survivors she met there, how their horrific individual circumstances haunted her dreams and how she was compelled to actively help. As a woman who rarely stands still, Sam provided modest financial support to the broken individuals she befriended on her first visit. Returning two years later, she witnessed two individuals rebuilding their lives, with hope and enthusiasm. This was to mark the beginning of a lifelong ambition to positively impact as many Rwandan survivors; most without education and living on the streets. Since 2008, with the support of the Survivors Fund, which Sam chairs, her ‘Reaching Rwanda’ initiative has raised close to £300,000; funding the build of two villages for Rwandan genocide survivors, financing more than 40 local businesses and employing 120 survivors, paying for two water pumps to provide 3,000 people with drinking water and livestock to help feed 50 orphan-headed households. Sam opened and runs a free education centre for vulnerable children and orphans called Philly’s Place, offering 1,000 children an opportunity to learn.
As well as two national teaching awards and her MBE, Sam has been recognised as a Sue Ryder “Woman of Achievement”, a “Pride of Bracknell” and has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the University of Winchester. At Luckley we often talk about pupils discovering their gifts and talents to go on to live meaningful and fulfilling lives. Yet it is by giving these talents away for the service of others that provides purpose and a life well lived.
