Sarah R

Ashoka Young Changemaker
US AYC PANEL 2019
United States
Elected in 2018

About Sarah R

Sarah and her team did not just start a club, they started a movement - a movement to change how her peers think about and interact with students with intellectual disabilities.

Through self reflection, Sarah discovered a personal and cultural unconscious bias throughout her school towards students with intellectual disabilities. Instead of ignoring the issue, she formed a team and together they strive to remove the stigma against students with intellectual disabilities through AWARE. The team is not only co-leading a club, but rather a multi-school movement of young people to create welcoming environments through awareness, education, and interaction. Sarah’s journey shows that changemaker initiatives are more impactful when they involve other young people to sustain, spread, and scale a social mission while vicariously inspiring more young people to find their own power and create positive change.