Engaged tutor, substitute teacher, and camp counselor with 7+ years of experience working with children and outdoor programs.

My focus area for the past few years has been on understanding the human mind and how humans, specifically juveniles, interact with themselves and society. My desire is to use my previous studies in how juveniles interact with themselves and apply it to understand more about how society's interactions with juveniles may contribute to them committing violent crimes against persons. I want to apply this knowledge to how and why some juveniles commit violent crimes, and how we can better structure societal influences to prevent juvenile’s from committing violent crimes, which could save the lives of both potential victims and the juveniles themselves.

Contact Information

📧 Email: [email protected]

📞 Phone: (727) 249-9759

🖇️ LinkedIn: Samantha Sutton | 🌳 Link Tree: Samantha Sutton

👤Contact Hours: 8 am - 5 pm Weekdays, 10 am - 5 pm on Weekends

<aside> <img src="/icons/brain_lightgray.svg" alt="/icons/brain_lightgray.svg" width="40px" /> “aut viam inveniam aut faciam” -I will either find a way, or I will make one

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🟣 Overview

Samantha graduated from high school when she was 18 years old with her high school diploma, 62 college credits, and an Associate in Arts degree. Coming from a fractured family herself, she was no stranger to how difficult life can be for a juvenile. She loved to be involved in the community and participated in both Sea Scouts with Boy Scouts of America, and Girl Scout. She served as a camp counselor, and employee of Girl Scouts of West Central Florida (GSWCF), and volunteered at her Middle School, on the PTSA, and within various groups in her community. After graduation, she continued her employment with GSWCF and was accepted to attend the University of Central Florida (UCF) to study Mechanical Engineering.

Starting in the Eighth grade, Samantha spent every summer working at Camp Wai Lani, a summer camp run by the GSWCF. She started in a Counselor-in-Training program and became the Camp Experience Coordinator (head counselor) at age 21. Sam loves spending her summers at camp helping young girls and this experience influenced her to change her major. One of the traditions at camp was to assume a camp name, and Sam’s camp name was Katniss, which was chosen for her archery skills. Sam learned archery shooting with her mother and grandfather and spent many hours with grandfather at the archery range shooting competition bows.

Although Sam enjoyed math and sciences and has a natural ability to discover how and why things work, she found her real passion when she attended her first Introduction to Sociology course. At the time, she changed her major to Psychology with a minor in Crime, Law, and Deviance. Sam was a LEAD Scholar, member of the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS), and a student in as well as an employee of the Academic Advancement Program (AAP). Even after changing her major, Sam was able to graduate in three years with Bachelor of Science in Psychology, a minor in Crime, Law, and an undergraduate certificate in Behavioral Forensics. She graduated in the Spring of 2022.

Knowing that she wanted to continue her studies, Sam decided to spend one year gaining more experience working with juveniles. She joined one of her previous teacher's tutoring business, taking on the office assistant role, and tutoring in math and social sciences. She also began substitute teaching with Pinellas County Schools, which has been rewarding and highly educational. Sam enjoys real-world learning and works both of those jobs during the week as well as working for GSWCF on the weekends facilitating outdoor programs such as high ropes, archery, and lakefront activities.

Sam is not afraid of hard work as she grew up watching the adults in her life working hard to support the family. Her father was abusive, and once he left, she lived in a single-parent household with her brother. Her mother was a consultant and Sam spent many hours of her childhood volunteering and assisting with the various community projects her mother was engaged in from setting up rooms to participating in working groups. Her grandparents were very supportive and influential in her life and passed on their belief that hard work and determination would help her do well in school and life as long as she focused on her passions and dreams.

Sam was introduced to the field of Sociological Criminology through her Introduction to Sociology professor and once she discovered it, she knew it was the perfect fit for her. Majoring in psychology helped her understand people and their motives better, which gave her a foundation for how society can affect and impact one person. She has always loved reading and watching true crime and has a strange fascination for why people commit crimes. Finding a way to study this topic allowed her to fall in love with academics and learning in a brand-new way.

Sam’s curiosity leads her to look at who is to blame when juveniles commit violent crimes, and deeper than the news stories and facts that are reported. She wants to understand more than the psychological perspective of mental illness, or predisposition to mental disabilities, and look deeper into the cause of juveniles committing such crimes. This desire to know the how and why leads her to want to study the societal impact that we’re not looking at and the question of how we might be to blame. After seeing many cases of juveniles that committed violent crimes after years of abuse, bullying, and unfair treatment from society she wondered if there was a possibility that society was contributing to and therefore should assume some of the blame for these juveniles committing violent crimes. If so, might there be a way to positively impact the outcomes for juveniles who society may have failed?

Sam’s determined to study, that intersection of why people commit crimes and help provide more light specifically into the path that may lead some juveniles to commit violent acts of crime. She wants to uncover why juveniles commit violent crimes (shootings, homicide, armed robbery, etc.) and how society plays a role in how they get to that point. Because maybe, just maybe, we can prevent the next tragedy by listening to juveniles, both the ones who tell us they’re hurting and the ones who don’t and doing what we tell them we’re going to do: protect them.