Sarah Thebarge, refugee activist

Sarah Thebarge is a speaker and author who earned a master’s degree in medical science from Yale and was earning a master’s in journalism at Columbia University when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 27.

After nearly dying, she sold everything she had and moved from New Haven, Connecticut, to Portland, Oregon, with just two suitcases of clothes and started over. It was at that point that she encountered a Somali refugee family on the train in Portland. Sarah developed a relationship with them, and over the next few months, while she taught the single Somali mom and her five daughters how to live in America, they taught her how to love and be loved again.

The details of Sarah and the Somali girls’ story of survival, recovery and redemption are recorded in her memoir, The Invisible Girls (Jericho Books, 2013). Her book was chosen as the First Year Experience book for incoming freshman at Mississippi State University, where she delivered the convocation in August 2014.

Additionally, Sarah’s blog was featured by MSNBC.com. Her writing has appeared in The Huffington Post, Everyday Health, Relevant Magazine, Christianity Today, Sojourners, The Good Men Project and Red Letter Christian. Her writing for Christianity Today’s This is Our City project won first prize from the Evangelical Press Association.

Sarah will also speak during the college's Ngage session at 8 p.m. in the Vogel Community Room.