Samantha Kroft moved to Rock Hill with her now-husband John Kroft to attend Winthrop in 2016, where she worked at Starbucks but eventually worked her way to the Office of the President.
Kroft took a job at the campus Starbucks for a year before enrolling as an undergraduate student for a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She was promoted to Lead Barista in 2018, but decided to leave the food and beverage industry after graduating with her bachelor’s degree in May of 2019.
Kroft married her husband John Kroft the following Halloween on the fourth floor of Tillman Hall, and capped the celebration with trick-or-treating in Bancroft Hall. It was there that English professor Leslie Bickford told her about an opening for Program Assistant in the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards and the Office of Undergraduate Research.
Kroft stayed in that position through the fall of 2020 and moved to the University College as an assistant for Katarina Moyon when the John C. West Forum on Politics and Policy was relocated there over the summer. She discovered a passion for politics while working alongside Nicholas Grossoehme, who was Undergraduate Research Director at the time.
“Directors of these programs are some of the most fun people I have met on this campus and if someone is ever in need of the best conversations, they are the ones I would recommend. I learned so much from them and am so thankful for the time I got to work with them,” Kroft says.
The Assistant to the Dean of University College role opened in May 2021, which she transitioned into that August.
“I felt like I was able to assist almost everyone in University College in some way.”
Kroft found out she was pregnant in September of 2021, and returned from maternity leave in mid-July of 2022. She interviewed for her current position shortly thereafter, seeing it as “the next logical step” in (her) career progression.
She was officially hired as the Assistant to the Chief of Staff in August of this year.
Much of the inspiration Kroft had to stay at Winthrop and take on her many roles was born out of both convenience and a desire to help the people around her. She says that the “tension and negative energy on campus” strained her desire to stay, but she still wants to find meaningful ways to encourage growth.
“I feel like I can offer assistance to the campus in a behind the scenes way. I feel like I am able to keep things organized and functional in my new role and help this office be the example of change in modern times,” Kroft said.
Kroft says that she credits mainly herself and her husband for her success. The skills she learned in preparation for her positions and the time she put towards them were personal sacrifices that her husband stood behind.
She also says that she “hope(s) that the future of campus is bright” and that she looks forward to what the University will soon offer through the combined efforts of the Winthrop community.
