Sarah Stern just finished her freshman year at KU and will be traveling to South America for seven weeks this summer.

Kansas University freshman Sarah Stern is passionate about travel, communication, building international relationships, helping others, providing great customer service in her business and part-time job, paying her own way, and — yes — studying hard to graduate from the KU honors program with a B.A. and B.S. within four years.

Stern started her own business at high school, won enough scholarships to pay for college and was United Way’s 2009 Youth Volunteer of the Year. She’s served as community service chairman for the Hispanic American Leadership Organization, is a Boys and Girls Club Priceless Pals program mentor and a bilingual classroom teacher with Teach for America. She’s been named Sellards Scholarship Hall’s Outstanding Woman of the Year, was chosen for the Lambda Sigma honors society and elected as its executive board’s community service chair. She’s just booked a seven-week summer trip to travel around South America to improve her communication skills.

She’s only 18.

Born in Overland Park and raised in Lawrence, Stern says her parents modeled hard work and service to others, and they never pushed or nagged her about homework.

“They just wanted me and (sister) Jenny to be happy and do our best,” she says.

“I just knew what I needed to do and did it.”

She caught the travel and communication bug while still at Quail Run School.

“A friend’s family invited me to go to Finland with them,” she explains.

“I carried a notebook everywhere, wrote down words and phrases, and tried to speak Finnish whenever I could. I wanted to communicate with people.”

She repeated the process when she visited Germany as a Southwest Junior High student. She decided to specialize in German until a kiss intervened.

“I went to a family wedding in L.A. with my dad when I was 14. Nearly everyone spoke Spanish, and I couldn’t understand them,” she recalls.

“I got this massive crush on a family friend. He gave me my first kiss and spoke romantic-sounding Spanish words.”

She was hooked. She decided to study Spanish.

She now speaks Spanish fluently, has been on an exchange trip to Paraguay, traveled to Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil, and has helped raise funds to bring poor Paraguayan students to Lawrence.

“Exchange programs shouldn’t just be for those who can afford it,” she says.

In addition to studying and volunteering, she works at her business, Stern Photography, most weekends plus 20 hours at KU Bookstore.

“I just keep a tight schedule,” she explains. “Volunteering is so amazing and very important to me. I receive more than I could ever give. It’s a wonderful privilege.”

She’d like to teach full-time with Teach for America and go wherever she’s needed. She also wants to dance in Paraguay’s Carnavales Encarnacenos and continue traveling.

“One of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain, ‘Don’t let school get in the way of your education,'” she says.

“I’m constantly learning through my volunteer work and travels. It’s taught me an incredible amount about life, and I want to keep doing both whenever I can.”