New York native and Biology, Health, and Society alum Samantha Dell’Imperio (B.S. ’23) lived in a city with a large Italian population growing up, and began studying the language in seventh grade to become more connected to her heritage. It wasn’t until January 2021 when the transfer student met LSA’s Leslie Stainton, a creative writing and literature lecturer for first-year undergraduate students, that she felt confident enough to take her interest in her ancestry and passion for holistic health to the next level and apply for a Fulbright scholarship in Italy.
“She’s infectiously wonderful. Samantha is gung ho about her studies, yes, but she’s also enterprising, poised, and driven,” Stainton says. “I talked to her about my experience as a Fulbright Scholar and told her to go for it. When she asked if I’d review her application, I happily did.”
Dell’Imperio, who also received a minor in Italian from LSA’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, is studying for her master’s degree at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy.
After several months attending classes, visiting local producers across the country, working on farms, and writing songs on her ukulele about her time on those farms, she reflects on new insights around the importance of nutritious and accessible food for all and how she feels her support system across U-M has helped set her up for success as a food systems activist.
Food for Thought
Dell’Imperio transferred to U-M from Syracuse. “You can always transfer schools if you don’t like your situation,” she says. “My advice for potential transfer students is to find your niche here. Find a community and a mentor. Find like-minded people you can count on who know who you are and what you want to do. I’ve done things I never thought were possible because of those people.”
In Dell’Imperio’s two years at U-M, she studied in both LSA Honors and the Residential College, sang in the choir, researched long COVID at Michigan Medicine’s Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, and even created and taught her own class about the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to mentorship from LSA’s Honors Program director, Mika LaVaque-Manty. In Italy, Dell’Imperio is just as ambitious.
“We take a lot of classes over the year. They change every week. One week I’m learning about food systems in Africa and the next, food communications. We have visiting professors who offer different perspectives on topics,” she says. “Then, it’s up to us to dive deeper into what we find most interesting.”
When not in class, Dell’Imperio visits farmers’ markets and food producers, cooks with her peers, or attends the English Conversation Group she started as a cross-cultural exchange with community members, designed to help them improve their English speaking skills. The Fulbright Program has also allowed Dell’Imperio to travel to other countries, including Greece and the Philippines, to study their food cultures. The experience has opened her eyes to food injustice and how a society’s health and wellness relies on more than just growing more fruits and vegetables.
“I think it’s interesting that farmers markets are less expensive in Italy than grocery stores, which is the opposite of the United States,” Dell’Imperio says.
She is currently traveling throughout Italy, working on different farms that practice permaculture and regenerative agriculture to learn more about these methods. Next year, she plans to work in education and research related to wellness, food systems, or agroecology.
“It’s easy to say that everyone should be healthy, but I realize what we really deserve as people the longer I live here,” Dell’Imperio says of her time in Italy. “I feel like water is a basic human right and local, healthy food should be less of a commodity.”
