Meet Samantha Liu (BBA, ’24), Baruch College Valedictorian

The valedictorian of Baruch College’s Class of ‘24 is Zicklin School of Business student Samantha Liu.  

Samantha Liu, Baruch’s Class of 2024 valedictorian

A Macaulay Honors scholar, Samantha is a statistics and quantitative modeling (SQM) major, with a double minor in human resource management and the arts of New York City. She’s a people person who loves her hometown of New York, where she has family roots going back to her great-great-grandmother. “I have generations of relatives who graduated from CUNY colleges,” says the Queens native. “After graduation, many of them climbed the ranks and some became successful business owners.”  

Samantha hopes to follow in her forebears’ footsteps: “Their CUNY educations enabled them to find their path in the best city in the world, and I wanted the same from my college career. I chose Baruch College because of the immense educational and professional payoffs that come with such a small investment.” As a little girl during the financial crisis of 2008, “I learned about the value of money early on,” Samantha adds. “When it came to choosing which college to attend, a school that would put me hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt was never an option.”  

She chose an SQM major because business analytics skills have gone in a few short years from being a plus to a must—something expected by employers. “I hope to see more students join the SQM major in future semesters,” Samantha continues. “I can’t stress the importance of statistical analysis in the business world enough. The courses I took for my major have given me the knowledge and confidence to bring data-driven skills to organizations I join in the future.”  

The organizations Samantha has joined so far have been impressive. She’s been a human resources intern at The Rockefeller Foundation since 2022 and also worked at the New York City Department of Transportation and Randall’s Island Park Alliance. Upon graduation, she’ll join Visa Inc. as an associate in the client services two-year rotation program.  

But mostly, Samantha is proud to be a New York college graduate. As she told her classmates during her valedictory speech at the Barclays Center commencement ceremony in May, “Graduating from one of the best public universities in the heart of the best city in the world means that we have established ourselves here in New York City. And I’m sure we all know how the saying goes: If we can make it here, we can make it anywhere.” 

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