Ramah is proud to offer vocational training for people with disabilities through our camps and our National Ramah Tikvah Network. In honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2020, we present the third in a series of profiles of Ramah vocational education program participants.

(We spoke with Sarah in February 2020. Although she is not currently working in a classroom setting, Sarah participated in Ramah Darom's virtual programming this past summer for participants in the Tikvah Support Program, and she's eager to return to camp next summer.)

Sarah Davis is working hard to make her dream of being an early childhood teacher come true. After working at a childcare center in her hometown of Sarasota, Florida as part of a technical college program, she is now living in Columbus, Ohio for the year and working at a preschool.

“I love seeing kids grow, their smiles, and making good connections with them. They are so cute,” Sarah said.

Sarah’s mother Sheri said there is no doubt that Sarah’s ability to successfully move to Ohio to live with her sister Allison and work at the preschool are due in large part to the independent living skills and sense of purpose she gained from her years with Ramah Darom’s Tikvah Support Program. Sarah, 23, still returns to Darom every summer to work with the children in the camp’s gan.

“She feels like a regular counselor at Ramah,” Sheri said. “And she has taken the responsibility, punctuality and pulling her own weight that go along with that into her jobs outside camp.”

Sarah has a variety of responsibilities at the preschool in Ohio, where she works in a class of 14 children ages three and four. She helps with snack and lunch, and executes lesson plans focused on teaching letters and numbers, and on helping the children develop their fine motor skills.

“It’s a big dream come true. I am so glad to be on the team,” Sarah said.

Allison, who has been on Darom’s Tikvah program staff for several years, is proud of her sister (the two are part of a set of triplets), but she is frustrated with the lack of opportunities for full-time, paid work in early childhood education for people with disabilities (Sarah works part-time and as a volunteer).

“There are opportunities that are paid, but they are not in Sarah’s area of interest. She doesn’t want to work in hospitality or food service. Her passion is working with young kids, and she is great at it,” Allison said.

“We are on the hunt for a certification program that is supportive for Sarah and that would provide a bridge to paid employment,” she said. “In the meantime, it is good that Sarah was able to become American Red Cross babysitter certified.”

Allison is extremely proud and happy to see that her sister has overcome the negativity and obstacles she has faced from those who doubted her.

“We’ll be out in the community, like at the supermarket, and her students will spot her and come running up to her shouting, ‘Miss Sarah! Miss Sarah!’ For them, there is no question she is their teacher,” Allison said.

- Renee Ghert-Zand

Sarah Davis: Becoming “Miss Sarah”