Scholar Profile: Sara Teshome
I was a DO-IT Scholar from 2007-2009. I was an Intern with DO-IT in 2009, and it was actually my very first internship. From then on, internships became very important and served me as a useful way to get necessary skills I wanted to have for my career goals. I continued my undergrad learning at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, and during the summers I looked for and applied for internships.
Sara in front of the White House in Washington D.C. First, I got some experience as a student of Braille Literacy by interning at the Washington Talking Books and Braille Library (www.wtbbl.org) here in Seattle. I spent ten weeks working on projects at the library, and completed work to satisfy an Independent Learning Contract I had constructed for Evergreen to give me credits for the internship.
After that, I found a wonderful Internship and Academic Seminar opportunity program at The Washington Center in D.C. (twc.edu/). Applying to the program took months of planning and multitasking, as I had to fit in the application process with the heavy load of classes I was taking. I got accepted with a scholarship for students with disabilities.
I spent two months of this past summer interning at a non-profit organization, the International Fund for China's Environment (IFCE), where I did environmental and energy-related work to strengthen China's clean environment act and educate the public as well as the government. I also took a weekly, three-hour class that focused on the types of issues the internships gave us to work on.
Now that I am back in Washington State, I am going back to school to pursue a science education, as well as develop skills and knowledge about social work, public health, and environmental safety.