Sarah Faye

Sarah currently works in educational publishing, having spent the last eleven years working in educational assessment and editorial contexts, both in a freelance capacity and for Cambridge Assessment English, where she was Senior Assessment Manager for IELTS. Prior to this, she gained over thirteen years’ experience teaching English as a foreign language in Turkey, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand and Senegal. She has taught at private language schools, the British Council and universities including Istanbul Technical University, where she taught academic writing and contributed to the first edition of Writing Research Papers published by ITU Press. She has trained and observed other teachers and was a Cambridge speaking examiner for six years. She has the RSA Cambridge DELTA, an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL (gained in 2016) and holds professional qualifications in copy-editing and proofreading from the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading.

As a way of giving back, she volunteers as a reading volunteer for Bookmark Reading, providing one-to-one support online to help a child develop their literacy skills through reading together twice a week in six-week blocks. She also volunteers as Social Media Coordinator for the Gambia Academy specialist music school run by director and professional kora player Dr Sona Jobarteh, which incorporates a curriculum centred around African values, culture and history.

Sarah has experience of serving on committees, having been on the Dakar Women’s Group Executive Committee when she lived in Senegal. A key part of her responsibilities included collaborating with other members of the Executive Committee and sourcing and disseminating information from the Charity, Art and Environmental Committees to members. She was also a member of the Charity Committee and worked within a team to screen funding applications from local organisations, carry out site visits and report on local projects supporting women, children and the handicapped.

Sarah has always been grateful to have studied at York and is delighted to serve on the first Alumni Advisory Board. Since graduating, her career path has been varied and she would like to bring what she has learned from her wide range of experiences particularly to those who need support at different times of their career. She is also keen to encourage alumni engagement, particularly internationally, in order to foster lifelong collaborations with York and a strong sense of community and belonging within the alumni network.