Sarah Belin

Sarah Belin is a 2020 graduate of Henry Clay High School in Lexington, a 2024 graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and a current candidate in the Masters of Public Health and Physician Assistant graduate program at The George Washington University.

Over the years, Sarah helped pilot KSVT’s school climate research as a signature tool to ensure safer, more inclusive, and more engaging learning environments and traveled to schools across Kentucky as a part of the team’s School Climate Listening Tour.  She served as an assistant editor for Ready or Not: Stories from Students Behind the Statistics, KSVT’s first book, for which she interviewed students in rural and urban schools about their struggles navigating the transition after graduation. She further facilitated Students as Partners workshops, guiding audiences of educators and policymakers to understand how to unleash meaningful student voice in education decision making.

As an undergraduate, Sarah helped coordinate KSVT media coverage and provided logistical support and documentation for the team’s statewide events at the Kentucky State Capitol. She further assisted with communications and site coordination for the team’s Journalism Institute which helped launch KSVT’s education journalism platform, The New Edu.

Outside of KSVT, Sarah was a science news reporter for The Badger Herald, UW Madison’s independent student newspaper; a peer instructor and guest lecturer for UW’s Disease Biology; and a volunteer with the Ethiopian National Project where she worked with immigrant youth to bolster spoken English skills. She took a post-baccalaureate year to work with an infectious disease medical team in Lexington.

Sarah plans to use much of what she has learned about co-design and community-driven research and advocacy with the Kentucky Student Voice Team to realize her goals in the health and medical fields. And thanks in part to her experiences with KSVT, she continues to be driven by a mission to honor the voices of those whom public policies most directly affect in the process.