Samantha Modder '17 Th'18
Samantha Modder '17 Th'18 is a graphic design professor at the University of Tampa and a multimedia artist and designer.
Multimedia artist and University of Tampa graphic design professor Samantha Modder’17 Th’18 enjoys dabbling in a range of mediums. Following an entry in her first faculty art show in 2023—with a piece printed of digitally manipulated ballpoint pen titled Her Hair Like the Sun and Clouds—she is now designing clothes from her own prints, having taken an introduction to fashion design course where she learned to sew. Her fondness for ballpoint pens is an homage to growing up in Sri Lanka, when access to art supplies was severely limited. In high school, she took physics, chemistry, and advanced math courses and watched her brother go off to the United States to study engineering. Dartmouth was at the top of Modder’s list when she applied in 2013, thrilled to find a top school where she could double major in engineering and studio art. “The fact I started off as an engineer and now I’m an artist has made me feel I can do whatever it is I’m interested in,” she says. That philosophy was reinforced during a summer internship with Professor Kofi Odame: “He would come to art exhibitions that I had on campus and tell me he loved my work,” says Modder, who displayed her work at the Top of the Hop and created a mural for the Geisel School of Medicine that drew attention to health disparities in the Black community. “It made me feel I didn’t have to stick to a traditional path.”
Samantha Modder '17 Th'18
Samantha Modder '17 Th'18 is a graphic design professor at the University of Tampa and a multimedia artist and designer.
Multimedia artist and University of Tampa graphic design professor Samantha Modder’17 Th’18 enjoys dabbling in a range of mediums. Following an entry in her first faculty art show in 2023—with a piece printed of digitally manipulated ballpoint pen titled Her Hair Like the Sun and Clouds—she is now designing clothes from her own prints, having taken an introduction to fashion design course where she learned to sew. Her fondness for ballpoint pens is an homage to growing up in Sri Lanka, when access to art supplies was severely limited. In high school, she took physics, chemistry, and advanced math courses and watched her brother go off to the United States to study engineering. Dartmouth was at the top of Modder’s list when she applied in 2013, thrilled to find a top school where she could double major in engineering and studio art. “The fact I started off as an engineer and now I’m an artist has made me feel I can do whatever it is I’m interested in,” she says. That philosophy was reinforced during a summer internship with Professor Kofi Odame: “He would come to art exhibitions that I had on campus and tell me he loved my work,” says Modder, who displayed her work at the Top of the Hop and created a mural for the Geisel School of Medicine that drew attention to health disparities in the Black community. “It made me feel I didn’t have to stick to a traditional path.”