Areesha Sampson

Areesha Sampson is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at the School of the Arts at Columbia University, which means she spends her days thinking about language, narrative, and the power of a well-placed sentence. She brings that same attentiveness to her role as a Veteran Affairs Ambassador at the Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI), where she helps veteran and military-connected students navigate Columbia with clarity, confidence, and the occasional well-timed reassurance.

A veteran herself, Areesha understands that transition is not just about paperwork and course registration. It is about identity. It is about community. It is about learning how to carry discipline and leadership into spaces that may look very different from the ones that shaped you. At CVTI, she supports programming, outreach, peer engagement, and event coordination, but more than that, she helps translate the university into something human. Something navigable. Something welcoming. Her work sits at the intersection of service and storytelling. She believes veterans do not leave leadership behind when they hang up the uniform; they refine it. In both her writing and her advocacy, she is interested in voice, resilience, faith, exile, belonging, and the quiet transformations that define a life well-lived.

Outside of CVTI and workshop, you will likely find her chasing discipline in the gym, chasing beauty in books, or chasing a sentence until it finally says exactly what it means. She approaches everything she does with conviction, curiosity, and just enough wit to make even institutional language feel less intimidating. Through her work at CVTI, Areesha is committed to ensuring that every veteran and military-connected student at Columbia knows two things: you belong here, and you are more than capable for what comes next.