Sarah “Sadie” Faith Andersen is our Director of Relations.
Sadie first met Mohamed three years ago when he joined Mozaiko, a new living-learning community on campus. Mohamed was presenting his new residence hall to prospective Virginia Tech students and his vision inspired Sadie. The moment she spoke with Mohamed, she decided to apply for Mozaiko, and later, join Soma International.
As an English minor with an avid love of reading, Sadie has always been passionate about books and education. Many of her childhood memories take place in her hometown library in Cold Spring, New York. During her senior year of college, the issue of unequal access to education prompted her to host a book fair. This event collected 1,000 books that were donated to the local group home. Ever since then, Sadie has had a greater awareness of the importance of equal educational opportunities, no matter where students live. It resonated with her when she heard about Soma International’s mission to bring books and educational content to rural communities in Tanzania. During her time with Soma International Virginia Tech chapter, she rewrote parts of the website, wrote blog posts and announcements for the Soma community. Now, as a graduated alumna of Virginia Tech, she continues to volunteer her time with Soma International as the director of relations. She continues to write blogs for Soma International and pitches ideas during our weekly meetings.
Sadie is currently a fellow at Venture for America, a two-year program for recent graduated students to become startup leaders and entrepreneurs. She recently attended the VFA Training Camp, a month-long virtual bootcamp where she learned website development, design thinking, business pitching, and more. Sadie works at OneClick.chat, a startup which has received a 2-million-dollar grant from the National Institute of Health to improve their video platform, created for accessibility for people of all ages, including older adults with mild cognitive impairment. In her free time, Sadie loves reading and writing. She is currently learning how to cook and is in the process of exploring new recipes. When it is warm outside, she can be found enjoying the outdoors by running and biking.
Soma International
Knowledge is boundless
If you would like to volunteer or donate, email us at: info@somainternational.org
Writer: Sadie Andersen
Editors: M. Cecilia Silva Montoya, Mackenzie Hyde