Image description: White, relatively young-looking woman with sharp features and shoulder-length brown hair and narrowed green eyes with the hint of a smirk. She's wearing a dark grey tank top. Screenshot is of Amanda (actress Melinda Clarke), also from Nikita. Not my photo, obviously.

When a ninth grade student at Samantha Koutoujian's high school hanged herself in a school storage closet and left behind a list of things that Sam had done to her over the past six months of non-stop bullying, the administration, of course, did exactly nothing, but her parents began to wonder. Maybe those cuts and bruises on their younger daughter Nell's arms hadn't all been self-inflicted after all. It also raised questions about what had really happened to the family hamster all those years ago. So they got her into therapy, and the therapist decided quickly that he was looking at more problems than he could deal with. He referred them to an educational consultant, and she referred them to Vision Quest (a... what did they call themselves? "Survival therapy program," that was it), and when Sam had spent three weeks of eating rice and lentils and freezing her ass off out in Utah, she learned she was headed up to Oregon for a more complete therapeutic learning experience at Northern Star Academy.

She was mad at first, sure. Furious, even. But the experience allowed her to fully realize her leadership potential. Her forceful personality helped her to hold her group accountable and make sure their work got done. It was a lot better than going to jail or getting her bratty ass shot and dropped in a dumpster somewhere, which was where she was headed if her parents hadn't chosen Northern Star. Hell, she even managed to go from nearly flunking 10th grade to graduating high school with a cumulative 3.3.

Returning home was a letdown. All her loser (former) friends were continuing on in their loser ways, headed for the gutter or worse. College was a false start, full of people wasting their potential and lying to themselves and others about what really mattered in life. And her parents were still coddling her sister and not making her pull her own weight. So Sam went back to her real home, and got a job as a counselor. Three years later, she became the Level I Leader, and has never been happier. Lately things have been a bit stressful, as she decided to show her parents how it was done and took her sister out of the group home to live with her in Oregon. But just like at work, it's all about setting reasonable expectations and holding people to them, even if doing so requires a little tough love sometimes.