Archive: Toledo Rocket Success Stories

By Steve Easton, Associate Director for Athletic Communications

TOLEDO, Ohio - Claudia Sampson decided to take the same path as her father, brother and sister and attend the University of Toledo, but that doesn't mean she followed in their footsteps.
 
Sampson, a senior on the women's golf team, went her own way when it came to choosing her academic path. A marketing major, Sampson comes from a family whose focus has always been in the medical and engineering fields.
 
Her father Brian was an engineering major and works in the IT field for General Motors. Her sister Olivia was a nursing major, and her brother Noah graduated with a biomedical engineering degree as well as an MBA.
 
"My dad, brother and sister all went to Toledo and had very good college experiences and ended up getting good jobs," said Sampson, who has a 3.841 grade-point average and will graduate next spring. "I had a lot of family connections and it felt like home. Even though they are involved in the medical and engineering fields, I knew I could be just as successful in marketing."
 
Her interest in marketing began when she was a sophomore at Clarkston (Mich.) High School.
 
"My high school is huge, and they offered a lot of classes," Sampson said. "I took multiple business courses like management, entrepreneurship and marketing.  Once I took marketing, I knew that was what I wanted to do.  We had a school store which we were able to work at during our school day. I really liked it and we did a lot of digital marketing there."
 
She served as president of the DECA Club as a junior and senior. DECA is an association of marketing students that encourages the development of business and leadership skills through academic conferences and competitions.
 
"My teacher suggested I try out DECA because she thought I was really successful and organized," Sampson said. "We had different competitions we went to where we had to practice role playing with sales pitches. We were given a specific scenario and judged on our performances."
 
Those opportunities in high school turned out to be beneficial at UToledo where she has received even more exposure to what it takes to be successful in the business world
 
"What I've enjoyed the most about our business program and especially the sales department is learning how to go into a meeting, know what to say and how to sell someone," Sampson said. "We've learned about what to do when you encounter a hard buyer or hard seller. It's been great to be put into a high-pressure situation and learn what's it going to take to close a sale."

Sampson has also acquired some other subtle skills that will help her after she graduates next spring.
 
"I've learned how to read a room and observe certain behavioral techniques," Sampson. "We've been taught if someone is acting a certain way this is what you should do. I've also learned how to get people to open up or get them to ask more questions."
 
Sampson is also blessed with the unique skills as a collegiate golfer that could assist her in the business world.
 
"It's amazing being a female golfer," said Sampson, who caddied last summer at the Inverness Club. "When I was at a networking event, we were going around a table and telling a fun fact about ourselves. I said I play golf at Toledo and the guys' eyes lit up. It happens a lot and it's so cool that people see that as unique and special. Golf has such a big tie-in to the business world; it can open a lot of doors."
 
Sampson's experience as a golfer with the Rockets has been eventful to say the least. It has taught her that life doesn't always go as planned and to not take things for granted.
 
"My freshman year was probably one of the hardest years of my life with everything that happened within our team," Sampson said. "COVID hit during our spring break tournament in Nevada and we also found out our teammate Sara Tumfong was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) (which ultimately resulted in her passing in October of 2021). Then after dealing with a lot of tendonitis in my wrist in my sophomore season, I had a severe infection in my entire abdomen and was in the hospital for two weeks at the start of my junior year."
 
All that has taught Sampson that life is full of twists and turns, and to never take anything for granted.
 
"I've tried to see the positive in everything because you don't know what the next day is going to bring," Sampson said. "It's just moving forward and being grateful for what you have."
 
Head Coach Jenny Coluccio has seen Sampson's infectious outlook firsthand and is thankful she decided to become a Rocket.
 
"Claudia is a ray of light. She has an eternal hope of optimism inside her, and wants the best for everyone around her," Coluccio said. "She has faced unimaginable events in each of her first three years of her career. As unexpected events continued to happen, she stayed strong-willed to not let those circumstances define her or knock her down. Claudia continued to search for a way through each and every time. Where there is a will there is a way, and Claudia continues to find the good and opportunity in the world around her."