In her inspiring talk to the students, staff and faculty of The Ellis School on February 14, Sarah encouraged the girls to move past their fears, follow their dreams, focus on education, and lead.

Sarah shared her journey from Morgantown, West Virginia where she was adopted by a loving white family, to Los Angeles where she began an acting career. There she confronted her fear of rejection by her birth family and decided to track down her biological parents. The search led her to the African nation of Sierra Leone. There she not only found a father delighted to meet his daughter. She discovered that she, as granddaughter of the Paramount Chief, is next in line for the chiefdom of the Mende royal family, which leads a community of 36,000 people.

In confronting her fears, Sarah discovered an extended family who gave her the warmest possible welcome. Her father, head of the local school, explained that she could be the next leader of this community if she so chose.

Sarah led by giving back. Her father’s school and indeed much of the community had been decimated by civil war. An educator herself at an independent school in Los Angeles, Sarah raised money to rebuild the school, provide clean drinking water, provide economically sustainable opportunities, and improve the general quality of life for the people of Sierra Leone, West Africa. She also wrote a book, A Princess Found, about how the experience of finding her birth family helped her find her own identity and her voice as a speaker and a leader. Today through The Kwoposa Foundation she has formalized her fundraising efforts on behalf of the community of Bumpe, Sierra Leone, with a special focus on keeping girls in school so they too can achieve their dreams.

Thank you, Sarah Culberson, for sharing your story of identity, family, acceptance, and service with all of us at The Ellis School.

You can learn more about Sarah Culberson’s inspiring story in this 2006 interview.