“When I was in second grade, my dad took me out of class to go vote with him – he had me hold the pen and held his hand over mine.”
“Working in political activism was always my goal, but I realized early on people in college usually have financial support from their parents. I never had that – my family was hit hard by the recession in 2008. I needed to have another career to pay for my dreams. In Utah, there’s a program where you can go to trade school starting in high school. Some of the money that would have gone towards your high school goes to the trade school for tuition. So, when I was 17, I started beauty school – and I was done by the time I started college, thanks to a law in Utah that made that possible.”
“I really do believe that you can be anything you want in this country. It doesn’t matter if your family was super poor, that doesn’t have to be your life forever.”
“My dad passed away from COVID. It was horrific, but it was also beautiful, because the community picked up my family and basically carried us through that. It did not matter the political background or if we were of the same faith – everybody rose up, ready to help.”
“After my dad passed, so many people reached out to us and told us beautiful stories of quiet service he had done for them for years – things we didn’t even know about. It showed me that, when we see a problem and we solve it ourselves, it has a much bigger impact on the world than when we send it off to another source to solve it.”
“When I think of America working, I think of that. We didn’t need the government to come in and tell these people ‘Hey, be nice to the Clarks.’ People from all backgrounds came in, rallied on our behalf and showed up for us – of their own accord.”
“Everybody wants to change the world but, if everybody said ‘I’m gonna go out and try and make the world better in my own small sphere of influence’ – imagine how great that would be.”
Sarah Clark
Springville, Utah
Sarah Clark works for a nonprofit organization near Washington, DC that encourages and empowers young people to be the next generation of leaders.
