To call Sinait Sarfino a “global citizen” would be an understatement. She speaks English, Korean, and she is now learning Chinese. She has lived in various countries including Ethiopia, Taiwan, and the United States. Sarfino is pursuing her Master’s degree in International Migration and Refugees at Georgetown University, after which she hopes to become a diplomat. Her goal is to work in migration in Asia or Africa. But Sarfino’s journey to becoming a global citizen has not been easy. Her accomplishments are the product of years of hard work, humility and immense perseverance.
When Sarfino was born Aug.19, 1998, in the capital city of Khartoum, Sudan was embroiled in its second civil war. This conflict was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War (1955-1972), in which the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, representing the largely Christian, English-speaking South, sought autonomy from the central Sudanese government, representing the predominantly Muslim, Arabic-speaking North. The war concluded in 2005, and South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011. The Third Sudanese Civil War began in 2023, and is currently being fought as rival factions seek control of the military government.
Sarfino’s parents were both heavily impacted by the war. Her mother, whose family resided in Khartoum, was forced to leave school, eventually finding work in a hospital. Her father came from the more rural Juba, the present-day capital of South Sudan, where he planned to inherit the farm his family had run for decades. But the farm suffered during the war, and so her father became a teacher instead. The two met as a result of their affiliation with the Lokoya tribe — a Nilotic ethnic group primarily residing in South Sudan — and had eight children born across varying locations: Sudan, Ethiopia, and the United States. Sarfino was just two years old when the family relocated to Sherkole Refugee Camp in Ethiopia. “Life was getting very difficult [in Sudan,” Sarfino explains. “There wasn’t a way to provide for me and my siblings, so they fled.”
Sarfino’s earliest memories are from the camp. She recalls playing with other children, learning to ride a bike, and building huts using the tall grass outside her home.
“That must’ve been dangerous now that I think about it,” Sarfino says, laughing. “The snakes!”
Sarfino also recalls the camp’s diversity, with different sections accommodating refugees from different parts of Africa: “Our section had all the South Sudanese people: the Mabaan tribe, the Dinka tribe, the Nuer tribe.” Sarfino interacted with members of various tribes on a daily basis and, as a result, acquired a wide array of dialects. This skill enabled her to serve as a translator for her parents.
When Sarfino was eight years old, her family gained sponsorship from Catholic Charities to move to the United States. Upon landing, Sarfino gazed at the world in disbelief. The family had arrived in the middle of winter, and Sarfino had never experienced snow. She remembers thinking, “Everything here is white. The people, the outdoors, everything.”
The family moved to Dayton, Ohio, where her parents found work making firefighter uniforms in factories. Sarfino herself took weekly English lessons before beginning school that fall. Although she struggled those first weeks, her parents motivated her to persevere.
“They believed we were here on borrowed time,” she explains, reciting their words to her and her siblings: “‘This is not our country — we can’t give them the chance to think we don’t belong here.’ They expected us to ignore everything and focus on our education. So I did.”
Her linguistic experiences in the refugee camp made it easy for Sarfino to pick up English quickly. Her newest language also fostered a ferocious love for reading. When she was in fourth grade, her family received a scholarship to send her to private school, where she flourished under the more personalized support. By the time she transferred back to a public high school, she was performing a year above her classmates. She graduated with a 4.2 GPA and many extracurricular involvements, including running varsity track and cross country, and serving as the president of multiple clubs.
Throughout this time, her parents made sure Sarfino and her siblings remained connected to their heritage, often inviting fellow Sudanese community members to cultural celebrations.
“I was balancing multiple identities: being Sudanese, Lokoya, and American,” Sarfino reflects. “They taught us to never forget where we came from, how we struggled to get here in the first place.”
Sarfino attended Miami University in Ohio, majoring in Diplomacy and Global Politics, and East Asian Languages and Cultures with a concentration in Chinese. In order to fund her education, Sarfino worked part-time during the academic year and full-time during winter and summer breaks. But still she found time to enjoy herself, befriending a group of Chinese students who encouraged her to learn their language.
She strengthened this proficiency when, during the 2023-24 academic year, she earned a Fulbright Fellowship teaching English to second and fifth graders in Taiwan — an experience she loved.
“Wearing any kind of hairstyle would bedazzle people, whether it was straight or curly,” she recalls. “My students would joke, ‘You change your hair every day!’”
Sarfino also attracted crowds — marveling when she wore traditional Chinese outfits or spoke Chinese.
Immediately after graduation, she interned in the House of Representatives for members like Rep. Shontel Brown, a Democrat from Cleveland, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. Her favorite job on Capitol Hill was doing legal research for Rep. Valerie Foushee, a North Carolina Democrat who referred to Sarfino as “the daughter I never had.” Under Foushee, Sarfino realized her passion for immigration policy, especially in light of the current political climate.
“People forget that I’m a migrant,” she states. “I’m what people see as ‘integrated.’ I have a college degree, I’m hardworking, I came here the right way, blah blah. People don’t realize that the hateful rhetoric surrounding places like Springfield, Ohio, impacts the entire migrant community. I hurt for a lot of those families and I fear for my own.”
This sense of righteous outrage only motivates Sarfino further. “Who will understand the needs and the wants of these people more than a person who’s experienced them?”
A prestigious Rangel Fellowship is helping Sarfino finance her studies at Georgetown. This summer, she will intern at a U.S. Embassy overseas, and, post-graduation, as part of the fellowship requirements, she will serve a five-year contract as a diplomat.
“It feels very full-circle,” she says. “I’m giving back to the country that has given me so much — pouring back into the cup that was poured for me.”