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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Flordeliza Querijero (right) works on a mosaic that will be installed in the lobby of Courtland Place — an affordable housing project for seniors in the Rainier Valley. (Photo by Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times)

Mosaic brings diverse women together in south Seattle

by Sarah Stuteville
The rattle of thousands of tiny pieces of glass pouring from buckets and Tupperware was the steady soundtrack in the basement of Courtland Place (a senior housing project in Columbia City) last Tuesday morning. Well, that and the crooning of Barry White.
Jul 18, 2014
Shanta Darnal attended school in Kathmandu thanks to Western donations. (Photo by Amy Benson)

Nepalese student’s suicide reveals dark side of ‘globalization lottery’

by Sarah Stuteville
Girls’ education is often seen as a panacea for global development. One promising Nepalese student's suicide reveals a more complicated picture.
Jul 11, 2014

All smiles for Eritrean painter

by Sarah Stuteville
A pair of young artists who are immigrants from Eritrea are staging a show, “Memories from Back Home” at the Metrocenter YMCA starting July 10.
Jul 4, 2014
An FN Five-seven pistol similar to that used by Nidal Malik Hasan in the 2009 Fort Hood Shooting. (Photo from Wikipedia)

Gun violence has foreign visitors fearful of US

by Sarah Stuteville
Do foreigners still see America as the land of opportunity — or as the land of gun violence?
Jun 27, 2014
Unaccompanied migrant children at a Department of Health and Human Services facility in south Texas (Photo courtesy U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar)

Flood of undocumented kids from Central America strains services

by Sarah Stuteville
The number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border from Central America has almost doubled this year. Is deporting them the only solution?
Jun 20, 2014
Director Peres Owino (left) on set of her documentary "Bound: Africans versus African Americans" premiering at the Seattle International Film Festival this weekend. (Photo by Nyar Nam Productions)

Bound by history, Africans and African Americans struggle to relate

by Sarah Stuteville
Two little boys dig in the sand on an empty beach, the blue ocean behind them reflecting a dazzling sun. An off-screen narrator describes inseparable brothers in “the land of warm waters.” But the peaceful scene quickly turns frightening as one brother suddenly vanishes — disappeared, explains our narrator, “to the land of cold winters.” This […]
Jun 6, 2014
In line at a citizenship swearing in ceremony in Tacoma. Immigrants and new citizens are disproportionately targeted by criminals and scammers, advocates say. (Photo by Alex Stonehill)

Scammers and criminals target Seattle’s most vulnerable

by Sarah Stuteville
People in the Seattle area’s international community are frequently the targets of crime — everything from break-ins to fraud to human trafficking.
May 30, 2014
Betty Erichsen, a volunteer at the Tacoma Seafarers' Center, helps Filipino seafarer Rommel Quibaez with a bulk candy bar purchase. Seafarers are typically in port for about 12 hours only once every few weeks, so an opportunity to stock up on essential items is welcome. (Photo by Alex Stonehill)

Tacoma center gives seafarers from distant lands a Northwest welcome

by Sarah Stuteville
Hundreds of international seafarers pass through our ports every month. Cooks and mechanics, engineers and officers — they're a quiet population of temporary visitors just looking for a little comfort and fun.
May 23, 2014

Youth tackle Sanskrit, global conflict in new age of summer camps

by Sarah Stuteville
Whether you want to immerse yourself in an ancient language, examine the roots of conflict in the Middle East or relive the French Revolution, there’s a camp for you (and your globally minded kid).
May 16, 2014
Girls at an orphanage outside of Nakuru, Kenya, celebrate the arrival of their menstrual kits made by the Days for Girls Ocala Florida Chapter. (Photo courtesy Days for Girls)

Simple feminine-hygiene kits empower girls

by Sarah Stuteville
Days for Girls International provides feminine-hygiene kits for girls in parts of the world without access to commercial products.
May 9, 2014
Enter the Yellow Band on an Everest ascent. (Photo by Lloyd Smith)

Deadliest day on Everest echoes in the Northwest

by Sarah Stuteville
“I was just thinking, ‘that could have been me,’” says AC Sherpa, remembering the moments after he heard of the avalanche that killed 16 people on Mount Everest late last week. He soon discovered that two guides he’d climbed with on a recent expedition were dead.
Apr 25, 2014
Mailarie Muñoz, age 16 (center) and Jennifer Bravo, age 16 (right), during the intermediate Mariachi class program at Wenatchee High School. (Photo by Alex Stonehill)

Wenatchee’s Mariachi youth keep the beat of success

by Sarah Stuteville
A high-school program called Mariachi Huenachi in Wenatchee is not only producing fine music, it’s helping students do better in school.
Apr 18, 2014
Former SPD Police Chief Norm Stamper, who resigned following the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. (Photo by Mike Siegel / The Seattle Times)

Former SPD chief sees global solutions for police problems

by Sarah Stuteville
Calling the war on drugs a failure, former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper says law enforcement in the U.S. could take a few lessons from other countries.
Apr 11, 2014
Activists in New York City take part in Global Day of Rage Against an Indian Supreme Court Judgment that reinstated Section 377 and re-criminalized homosexuality. (Photo by Sarah Bennett / IGLHRC)

Is Seattle’s global health sector ready to embrace gay rights?

by Sarah Stuteville
“I didn’t want to hide or live in fear anymore,” says Jacque Larrainzar. “And the place I kept coming back to was Seattle.” In 1997 Larrainzar, became the first Mexican to receive political asylum in the U.S. based on sexual orientation. After traveling the country looking for a new home Larrainzar says that Seattle, and the LGBT community […]
Apr 4, 2014

How Alabama taught me that immigration is a civil rights issue

by Sarah Stuteville
“They really beat into your mind that (immigrants) are stealing from you ... that they’re taking money out of your pockets.”
Mar 28, 2014
Damon Shadid, candidate for Seattle Municipal Court. (Photo by Ellen M Banner / The Seattle Times)

Shadid seeks spot for Arab Americans on court

by Sarah Stuteville
Immigration and criminal defense lawyer Damon Shadid looks to make history by running for a seat on Seattle's Municipal Court.
Mar 7, 2014
Protestors throw Molotov cocktails at police in Kiev in January. (Photo by Mstyslave Chernov via Wikipedia)

To local Ukrainians, the true enemy is corruption

by Sarah Stuteville
The protests in Ukraine were originally framed as a conflict over whether or not the country should join the European Union. But Ukrainian Americans here in the Pacific Northwest say the “revolution” is really a desire to end corruption.
Feb 28, 2014

Filipino youth flash mob is the best thing about V-Day

by Sarah Stuteville
Pin@y sa Seattle joins groups around the world for the One Billion Rising flash mob, promoting an end of violence against women.
Feb 14, 2014
Guards book a new detainee into the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. The facility is run by the Geo Group, a private corrections corporation, on contract from the Department of Homeland Security

Opening their hearts to the strangers locked up in our backyard

by Sarah Stuteville
Some Tacoma families are going out of their way to make the detainees at the Northwest Detention Center feel a little more welcome.
Feb 7, 2014
In "Beijing Meets Seattle" Actress Tang Wei plays a materialistic woman who travels to Seattle to give birth to the child of her married Beijing lover.

Movie romance wooing Chinese tourists to Seattle

by Sarah Stuteville
Chinese blockbuster "Beijing Meets Seattle" has a young generation in China swooning over our city.
Jan 31, 2014