By: Mollie Peery
Olivet Nazarene University is not often home to sassy, confident hip-hop dancers, but yet again Sammie Martin breaks the college stereotype by using her passion for dance and Christ to drive what she does within her major and her business.
Samantha (Sammie) Martin is a senior majoring in Public Relations and Strategic Communications at Olivet. She has worked intensively with a program called ISA (Inspired Strategy Agency) where she worked with real clients around the area. Her bold confidence has given her the ability to network well within this activity in her department.
Her team partners with the Kankakee Chamber of Commerce and focuses on extensively growing and working with their client management structures.
“After working in it, I really enjoyed the atmosphere,” Martin notes. She wasn’t planning on wanting to pursue something like an ISA type field, but she is really grateful for the opportunity for the networking and connections that she is making. ISA hosts multiple teams around the area who help different communities-on campus and off. Sammie is grateful for ISA and the opportunity to grow in her leadership skills and have the ‘real adult’ sensation with real clients.
Her ability to confidently network and work as a ISA member has definitely stemmed from her position as a CEO in her lipstick company. Martin created a lipstick company called “By the Clique” which focuses on selling ‘cruelty free’ lipsticks in both matte and satin finishes. She runs the company with her sister-Sarah, and her cousin-Amanda.
Sammie Martin doing homework. 
Martin in an ISA meeting. 
Martin drinks coffee and takes a moment for hanging out with friends. 
Sammie Martin dancing in the ONU dance troupe. 
Sammie Martin putting on her ‘By The Clique’ lipstick.
“It started my interest in PR,” Sammie says. She says that she has really enjoyed the branding side of the lipstick company and it’s helped her grow in her skill. From picking lipstick shades and colors, to repping the lipsticks on social media, she has taken initiative in what she’s passionate about and done it.
Her driven personality has been a large factor in her decisions with her career choices. But, her bubbly infectious personality didn’t come from nowhere.
Shelby Black, a dancer friend of Sammie’s says, “I always noted how confident she was. She owned it.” Shelby opened up about how her eyes always drew to Sammie when she was dancing. She also noted that Martin was no less friendlier off the stage.
“She has an effect on people, it makes you fall in love with her.” Shelby talked about how Sammie was one of those people that seemed like she really cared about others. Martin’s dancing had affected Shelby so deeply.
Sammie opened up about how she felt as a dancer personally and how that affected who she was. Martin started dancing when she was 6 or 7 and theater played a huge role in how she developed that passion. She was heavily involved in a theater community called “Christian Youth Theater” or CYT. Sammie participated in their dance teams as well as their shows. She honed in on her skill with this company which created a love for dance. Martin then went to intern for one of their dance teams in which Shelby Black was on-finishing her senior year with the team.
Sammie Martin shows the intense passion and drive for her major and business through her love of dance and her compassion for others. When it comes to being a bubbly personality to light up the quad on a rainy day, she’s your gal.
