Samantha Lee

I just finished my first semester of my second and last year of grad school and life is good again. This semester was not that great. I did not enjoy my classes or the assignments, except for one. For my international economic development class (sounds complicated, I know), I had to read Behind the Beautiful Forevers, a book about the Annawadi...Read More!

I can’t say I am good in the kitchen. I can’t even say I come close to being good in the kitchen. So naturally, when I make something, no matter how small, I feel good about myself. This past weekend, I made iced tea. And no, I didn’t just put tea bags in cold water and add sugar! I boiled water and followed several other steps! This may...Read More!

I spent almost all of last week celebrating Thanksgiving with my family in New Hampshire. I love my family but sometimes they drive me absolutely crazy, so spending a lot of time with them can be…interesting. Naturally I was thrilled when my uncle said he had four tickets to a hockey game. That way the family just relaxes and hangs out and the...Read More!

My name is Samantha Lee and I am a club-aholic. There, I said it! I have a problem. It is rare that I am not in the mood to go clubbing and shake my tailfeather. I love the before, during, and after: the process of getting ready (whether it’s alone or with girlfriends), the bump and grind of the club, then the after effects of recapping what...Read More!

My trip to Guatemala has come to an end. It has been an incredible experience; so much more than what I had expected. From finding cockroaches next to my bed to climbing the temples of Tikal; from swaying left and right on a chicken bus as the driver turns at 85 mph on windy mountain roads to hiking a 9900 ft. volcano; from seeing...Read More!

As I am sure most of you have heard, there is much drama regarding Chick-fil-A. Not only has CEO Dan Cathy said that he supports the “traditional family,” but he uses Chick-fil-A money to support anti-gay rights groups such as the Marriage & Family Foundation and the Family Research Council. As a result, many have turned their back on the...Read More!

This week, we had six women from Silicon Valley and the Bay area visit our organization to find out more about what we do. They also visited the communities and met with our wonderful artisans. Today was their last day here and we had a panel discussion between the executive women who run companies like Apple, Google, and large law firms and the...Read More!

I hiked San Pedro Volcano in San Pedro, Guatemala. All 9900 feet of it. Not a mountain – a volcano. Not a couple of thousand feet, but almost 10,000 feet! Yes, I am just as shocked as you are. Let me start by saying that I am not an active person. I don’t exercise. I don’t run. I barely eat well. I am vegetarian though, which kind of...Read More!

These past few days have been eventful. My friends and I had Friday off for 4th of July, so we decided to take advantage of the long weekend and visit Antigua. Antigua is a beautiful colonial city in the Sacapetequez region of Guatemala, a three-hour chicken bus ride from Panajachel. If you don’t remember what a chicken bus is, refer to...Read More!

New interns/fellows arrived this week and I was asked to play hostess and show them around Panajachel and delegate a little bit of office work to them. I had to pick up one of them at the bus stop and bring her to the house she will be living in for the rest of the summer. So before she arrived, I went exploring trying to find the house with...Read More!