Written by Jennifer Marino Walters.

For Safiya Samms ’12, MBA ’14, service-learning was a very important part of her college experience. During her time at Bentley, Samms volunteered at a nearby elementary school for two years. She also served as a tax preparer through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program.

“I truly believe in giving back to the community,” says Samms.

A Career in Technology
Luckily, she has been able to continue doing so in her current job as a product specialist at Facebook.

Part of her job entails working to make the company’s products accessible to differently abled users. Samms is also responsible for monitoring the quality and stability of Facebook’s products, as well as taking direct user feedback to influence product roadmaps and improve operational efficiency of the company’s quality initiatives.

“Facebook is the most awesome place to work. The company really trusts employees to work as a team and be effective decision makers while making a positive impact on the world,” Samms says. “Plus, I get to work on the most visited website on earth that connects 1.4 billion people every day. It’s amazing!”

Samms also got to work at the most-used search engine on the Web — Google — for two summers. The summer before her senior year, Samms helped out in online sales for Google’s retail clients. After graduation, she did financial planning and analysis for Google’s Geo division.

Continuing on a great career path, Samms then worked for two and a half years at Leaf Holdings (acquired by Heartland Payment Systems), first as a hardware logistics manager and then as a product marketing manager. She joined Facebook in June 2015.

Samms’ Bentley Background
After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Samms went on to earn her MBA in Management from Bentley in 2014.

But throughout her six years at the school, her favorite classes were not all related to her majors. Her gender studies course with Professor Traci Abbott, she says, helped her understand the power of being a feminist. She says that one of her MBA courses on the management of technology-based businesses, was the most useful class she has taken related to the technology industry.

But Samms’ all-time favorite class at Bentley was economic botany, in which she learned a great deal about plants.

“It was the most interesting class I took. It helped me realize the importance of being an environmentalist and the damage of humanity’s impact on Earth,” says Samms. “I highly recommend this class!”

Bentley was also home to Samms’ first job: She worked part-time for five years at the university’s library.

“It was the best first job I could have asked for,” she says. “My favorite part was sitting in the reference section reading encyclopedias. Yes, I’m aware I’m a massive geek!”

Continuing to Give Back
In addition to all of her work experience, Samms has served as a mentor for Smarter in the City, a Boston-based technology accelerator that aims to give opportunities to entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities. The organization’s focus fits well with Samms’ belief that technology can be a solution for many of Earth’s major issues.

“The world has a ton of problems,” Samms says. “Figure out which one you want to solve and go for it!”