SARA’S WISH FOUNDATION was established to perpetuate the memory of Sara Christie Schewe. In 1996, Sara, a beautiful and loving young woman, was killed in a fatal bus crash in India along with three classmates while participating in the University of Pittsburgh’s Semester at Sea Program.
The mission of Sara’s Wish Foundation is to sustain Sara’s living spirit by promoting travel safety standards and practices around the globe and by providing financial support to young women working in the areas of education, health care, and/or public service in the global community. We sustain Sara’s living spirit through:
1. International Travel Safety Initiatives:
- Bring greater awareness to improving safety in international transportation and travel, especially in student study abroad programs.
- Support the development of new technologies that can improve travel safety.
2. Scholarships/Awards:
- Offer awards to support new travel safety initiatives as well as humanitarian projects in the global community.
- Offer Global Humanitarian Awards to previous scholarship recipients who have sustained their commitment to educational and/or humanitarian work in significant ways.
- Offer scholarships to deserving young women to help defray the costs of international travel experiences in the areas of education, health care, and/or public service. [No longer offered as of 2015.]
3. Motorcoach Seatbelt Safety Initiatives:
- Design and commercialize with a partnering company a retrofit seatbelt system for intercity motorcoaches that do not have seatbelts installed.
- Design and conduct a national marketing campaign to increase seatbelt usage on intercity motorcoaches installed with seatbelts.
It is our hope that sharing Sara’s story will help inform parents, students and travelers. Accidents can and should be avoided – not by prohibiting adventure and exploration, but by gaining access to more and better information about national and international highway safety.
This is Sara’s Wish.