Sarah Stuteville

Sarah Stuteville is a print and multimedia journalist. She’s a cofounder of The Seattle Globalist. Stuteville won the 2011 Sigma Delta Chi Award for magazine writing. She writes a weekly column on our region’s international connections that is shared by the Seattle Globalist and The Seattle Times and funded with a grant from Seattle International Foundation. Reach Sarah at sarah@seattleglobalist.com.
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Eeshan Tripathi, Dhruv Lohumi, Adam Dow, and Preeti Singh of Improv Comedy Mumbai — the first improv troop in India. The Mumbai crew was started by Dow and is in Seattle this month for a string of special performances. (Photo by Alex Stonehill)

India’s first improv troop seeks laughs in Seattle

by Sarah Stuteville
Improv Comedy Mumbai, a group founded by Seattle native Adam Dow, is in town this week for "Bollywood themed" improv performances.
Jul 3, 2015
Naima Abdi, 6, sits in the women's section with parents and siblings of players. The organization also has a smaller program for girls held at the SeaTac Community Center. (Photo by Alex Stonehill)

Closing the “opportunity gap” for South King County immigrant students

by Sarah Stuteville
Many new immigrant and refugee families say they are being left behind — especially when it comes to education.
Jun 19, 2015
Artistic director John Murphy, left, rehearses EZID, which opens June 20th. (Photo by Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times)

EZID acrobatic theater performance draws on ravages of Iraq

by Sarah Stuteville
Choreographer’s recent trip to Northern Iraq inspires latest dance performance from The Cabiri nonprofit troupe in Seattle.
Jun 12, 2015
Paul Nyambe has gotten support from Fledge to develop his business, ZamGoat. He hopes to build a goat-meat market not only in Zambia but globally. (Jama Abdirahman)

New kind of accelerator boosts “fledgling” global startups

by Sarah Stuteville
These entrepreneurs aren’t promoting apps and gadgets. They’re pitching businesses that will further development of their home countries — from Argentina to Zambia
Jun 5, 2015
A still from the 2011 documentary "Bully" part of an international campaign to raise awareness about peer-to-peer. Some Muslim Americans say the movement hasn't done enough to confront bullying of Muslims based on religion.

Anti-bullying movement has ignored Muslims

by Sarah Stuteville
A Saturday event at Bellevue College is designed to take a stand against bullying of Muslims.
May 22, 2015
Volunteer Kevin Tran stacks bins of donated food for weekend backpacks for 64 students at Thorndyke Elementary school in Tukwila. (Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times)

Tukwila kids go hungry and homeless in Seattle’s shadow

by Sarah Stuteville
In the midst of Seattle's economic boom, a Tukwila elementary school is struggling to provide for students in need of shoes, food and beds.
May 15, 2015

Nepali UW students and faculty fundraise to rebuild quake-impacted Simjung

by Sarah Stuteville
A group of Nepali students and faculty members is collecting money to help rebuild a small town largely destroyed in the recent earthquake.
May 8, 2015
The Indian subcontinent on a 3D globe at the Seattle Public Library. The Seattle metro areas South Asian population grew 173% between 2000 and 2010. (Photo from Flickr by J Brew)

Storywallahs: True tales of the South Asian experience in Seattle

by Sarah Stuteville
Storywallahs will showcase the experiences of our region’s growing South Asian community, with a focus on stories of cultural misunderstandings.
May 1, 2015
At the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, water activists Jenneh Corkern, left, 17, and Grace Clipson, 15. (Greg Gilbert/The Seattle Times)

Liberian-born teen takes on global water access

by Sarah Stuteville
Jenneh Corkern, who grew up in a Liberian orphanage without clean water, has inspired other Seattleites to fundriase for global water access.
Apr 24, 2015
The Specialty Coffee Association of the Americas conference in Seattle this week is all about improving the experiences of coffee consumers. But some participants are looking at how it can improve the lot of growers too. (Photo courtesy SCAA)

Ensuring the global coffee boom gives farmers a fair shot

by Sarah Stuteville
A giant coffee conference held in Seattle this week will include local efforts to help coffee farmers escape poverty.
Apr 10, 2015

Searching for a solution to the Somali remittance crisis

by Sarah Stuteville
Somali Americans came together with politicians to look for a way to keep remittance money flowing to Somalia in spite of banks' restrictions.
Apr 3, 2015
Hamza Ibrahim, 18, leaps for a rebound during a Companion Athletics basketball game. His team, representing the Ethiopian Muslim Association of Seattle (EAMS) won the championship last year — and involvement in the league encouraged Ibrahim to get his grades up. (Photo by Alex Stonehill)

All East African basketball league transforms teens

by Sarah Stuteville
A new all East African basketball league in Tukwila has given Somali, Ethiopian and Eritrean teens a chance to show off their skills, and raise their grades.
Mar 20, 2015
Rainier Valley Food Bank volunteers used the Japanese Kaizen philosophy to resolve food-bank “choke points.” (Ellen M. Banner/The Seattle Times)

Kaizen at the meat station: Japanese corporate strategy revitalizes food bank

by Sarah Stuteville
How the strategy of “continuous improvement” developed in Japan and perfected at Starbucks is helping feed the hungry in South Seattle.
Mar 13, 2015
Tuna loins are offloaded at Waepure, one of the Indonesian fishing villages involved in the new Fair Trade tuna program. (Photo by Paul Hilton / Fair Trade USA)

Fair trade seafood, coming soon to your grocery store

by Sarah Stuteville
Haunted by horror stories from fisheries in the Global South? A new fair trade seafood labeling system is on the way.
Mar 6, 2015
Zahra Abidi is program director at an Islamic center and mosque that received an emailed bomb threat in 2012. (Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times)

Hate crimes on the rise in Washington

by Sarah Stuteville
A rash of hate crimes around the Northwest have left lasting scars on international communities.
Feb 27, 2015
Amen Gibreab (right), director of the film Horeta: The Journey Beyond Culture, enjoys a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony performed by Fanaye Debalke at Gojo Ethiopian Restaurant on Aurora Ave. (Photo by Alex Stonehill)

How a trip to Ethiopia shattered stereotypes, spurred documentary

by Sarah Stuteville
After a trip to Ethiopia, a local filmmaker and a group of students are challenging Americans' grim generalizations about Africa.
Feb 20, 2015
Solomon Dubie is raising money to turn his Rainier Mini Mart into a cafe that will serve Ethiopian-style coffee.

Store owner dreams of adding Ethiopian coffee traditions to Seattle’s java scene

by Sarah Stuteville
“This was one of the first forms of brewed coffee ever, ever. That’s amazing to me,” says Rainier business owner Solomon Dubie.
Feb 12, 2015
"We are all thinking about it," said Egal, regarding the interruption of money transfer operations. "We have to help back home." (Photo by Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)

Anti-terrorism regulations cut a critical lifeline to Somalia

by Sarah Stuteville
Starting today, immigrants in Washington have no legal way to send money back to family in Somalia.
Feb 6, 2015
There is a lack of language programs for public school students in the international community. Students can study Spanish, French and German but there are no East African languages and very few Asian languages despite the fact that we have many speakers from those regions. The White Center Heights dual langauge Vietnamese program is one exception. (Photo by Ellen Banner / The Seattle Times)

Vietnamese dual language program a big hit at White Center school

by Sarah Stuteville
Educators behind a new Vietnamese-language immersion program at White Center Heights Elementary School hope to prove the power of dual-language learning.
Jan 30, 2015
Kennie Amaefule (Photo by Anil Kapahi / Columns Magazine)

Boko Haram and Ebola put fear in Nigeria volunteers

by Sarah Stuteville
For Seattle aid volunteers headed to West Africa, a fine balance between compassion and fear.
Jan 23, 2015