Mitra Samadani ’92 has spent much of her life traveling, from her time as a child growing up in Iran to the post-retirement trips she has taken with her husband.
Mitra Samadani ’92 has spent much of her life traveling, from her time as a child growing up in Iran to the post-retirement trips she has taken with her husband.
Samadani was born in Iran and moved with her family to Paris before coming to the United States. She finished high school in Chappaqua, NY (Westchester County) before matriculating at Alfred University where, in 1992, she earned a bachelor's degree in communication studies.
“We traveled regularly around Iran and to Europe because of my dad’s job,” Samadani said of the trips she took during her earlier years. “When I was younger, I saw many cities and countries. I was very interested in architecture, history, cultures, and languages.”
Following her graduation from Alfred University, Samadani worked several jobs in Manhattan, until her last job as a risk manager and director of human resources at a construction company. After meeting her husband, Phil Argiros, Samadani said the couple’s travels changed to focus on what animals they could see in their natural habitat. She said one trip allowed her to come face to face with a great white shark while shark cage diving in Cape Town, South Africa. “I loved them since I saw the movie Jaws and watched many documentaries about these magnificent creatures,” she noted.
A photo of a great white shark taken by Mitra Samadani ’92 in 2014 from a shark cage off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa.
After retiring in 2015, Samadani and her husband began traveling more extensively. Among their other travel experiences: Being awakened in the night to the braying of African Penguins in Cape Town; watching humpback whales breach the water and slap onto the surface with their calves in Mexico and Hawaii; glamping inside Masai Mara National Preserve and watching wildebeest migration and countless other animals in Kenya; watching and learning about hundreds of elephants in Botswana; seeing tigers in India and driving through small towns and villages and watching the people; visiting the Egyptian pyramids as well as Valley of the Kings in Luxor; cruising through Glacier Bay and watching calving glaciers in Juneau, Alaska; and trekking to far reaching places off the beaten path in Arizona and Utah.
A photo of a lioness and cub taken by Mitra Samadani ’92 in Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, Africa, in 2014
Samadani said she makes a note of where to visit when she sees or hears about something that’s interesting. “Some of the trips take many years to develop,” she said, noting that her desire to travel has been spurred in part by seeing loved ones’ lives cut short by illness, “I've sped up the trips to unusual places in recent years. I'm checking things off of my bucket list.”
A photo of a tiger taken by Mitra Samadani ’92 in Bandhavgarh National Park, India, in 2024.
