SAMIRA OKUDO
Senior, Thomas S. Wootton High School
SAMIRA OKUDO WAS 10 when she and her family immigrated to the Washington, D.C., area from Nigeria. As she navigated a new culture and Stone Mill Elementary School in North Potomac, she recalled the advice of relatives in Nigeria: The best inheritance a parent can give to their child isn’t money—it’s a great education.
Samira, who lives in Gaithersburg, threw herself into her studies. “It was much easier to transition academically than socially,” says the 17-year-old senior, who has completed 14 honors courses and nine Advanced Placement classes.
Last year, Samira won the Wootton Hall of Fame Award for the Class of 2015, which was given in recognition of her creative talents and leadership roles, including 500 hours of community service in the surgical ward at Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center in Rockville—more than six times the 75 hours required by the state to graduate. “Samira has demonstrated leadership beyond what many others have even considered,” says Jay Bass, a school counselor at Wootton. “She’s mature beyond her years.”
The self-described “nerd” has an inquisitive nature that goes beyond academics. After seeing Brandon Stanton’s 
famous blog, Humans of New York, Samira started a Humans of Wootton blog last year. She posts pictures of classmates with a quote about who they are. Students have said it’s helped bring them together. “People are reaching out across social groups and getting to know kids they never talked to before,” she says.
Samira’s artistic nature has also emerged in studio art, where she uses acrylic paints to capture people’s faces and hands. “I love to get the coloring of a person down on paper,” says Samira, who hopes to continue exploring art in college and to pursue a career in architecture or industrial design. “Some people might paint a brown face brown, but after you look at the way a light hits it, you’ll see red, blue, purple. I like capturing those subtleties.”
Photos by Michael Ventura
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