Sarah Rinehart

Sarah Rinehart is a recipient of the Summer 2017 and Academic Year 2017-2018 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship. The award provides undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students with financial support to develop fluency in less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) and expertise in the regions in which these languages are spoken. Every year the Center for Global Studies awards between 12-15 fellowships to UW students. Click here to learn more.

As an undergraduate in the School of Public Health, I have been able to explore a breadth of issues faced by communities locally and globally. I plan to work with underserved populations and health system strengthening.  Upon entering the University of Washington, I spoke Spanish and had begun to learn Portuguese due to my interest in Latin America. With the support of the FLAS, I was able to study Portuguese in relation to global health. I attended an intensive Portuguese course in Brazil for two months during the summer of 2017. I have continued Portuguese language classes at the UW, and have focused my elective courses on global health classes. With skills gained through the FLAS, I recently used the information from several Brazilian reports in a paper written on maternal and child health. I am certain that the knowledge gained through the FLAS will continue to enrich my academic experience at the UW and beyond.