Sara Bhalla Email & Phone Number

Sara Bhalla is a Investment Banking Analyst at CIBC Capital Markets. She is proficient in Danish and French. Colleagues describe her as " It is with great pleasure that I write this letter of recommendation for my student, Sara Bhalla. Sara has been part of my IB Economics class since August 2018. At the Awty International School, students do the full IB Diploma program; it is a rigorous and challenging high school experience with which Sara has done very well. To date, she has maintained an A average in IB Economics, a feat worth celebrating since this is the first time she and other students have encountered Economics as a discipline. I became aware of Sara’s determination, drive, and ability when she persuaded me to support her in establishing a DECA chapter at our school. As president of this chapter, Sara has proved herself to be an organizer and a tireless champion to encourage, cajole, and support other members to participate in DECA events at various levels. She has spent countless hours in making herself thoroughly familiar with the information provided on the DECA website so she has become our chapter expert go-to person. She is incredibly passionate about this endeavor and as a result, 7 of our 20 members, participated in the District event, (700+ participants) with 5 of them making it to the State level! This is an amazing accomplishment for the entire chapter which began a mere 4 months prior though our school which doesn’t offer Business, Management, Finance, or Entrepreneurship classes, routinely taught at other participating schools. Sara has been tireless in her focus and commitment to this endeavor. Her leadership qualities are apparent on a day-to-day basis when she runs meetings; she exercises tremendous patience and humor in dealing with the silliness that her peers are sometimes capable of. She takes criticism well, not letting it discourage her; rather she has used it to improve herself. I am impressed with her positive can-do spirit. Academically, Sarah carries forward the same determination and focus to succeed; she works extremely hard to read, prepare, and participate in discussions. What I particularly appreciate in Sarah is that she doesn’t hesitate to ask for added explanations till she feels she has mastered the concepts, even coming during her free time to get them clarified. She is quite proactive about her learning. She has improved her writing skills significantly from when she started and is now able to explain concepts with precision and clarity. Her essays are well-structured and logical. She is approachable to her peers and is available to help anyone who asks for it. Overall, she has progressed on many fronts: leadership, argumentation, writing, as well as self-confidence. I cannot recommend her too highly. She is sure to contribute to the success of others as well as to succeed in becoming a positive influence in any environment she finds herself in. I wish her the best. Regards, Lydia Peeran IB Economics Teacher, Ethics Bowl Coach, DECA Coach Awty International School: An International School for an International City 7455 Awty Scho" and "Sara Bhalla has worked as a volunteer consultant to SafeKidsStories.com and #VoteThatJawn in 2019. She proved to be the one of the five most independent and responsible high school students I have worked with or taught, starting with my teaching at St. Paul’s School in NH, and continuing through my work on Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission; she places among the top 10% if I were to rank her among my twenty-five years of teaching college students. Independent was the watchword of her time and work with us. Also caring, sharp, clear-eyed. Launched in 2015, SafeKidsStories, now morphed into its pop-up youth voting initiative, #VoteThatJawn, has been run by people with expertise in education, magazines, advocacy, design, and events. Until 2019, we had never been as strong in marketing and social media as our content deserved—and demands. Adult volunteers have sepped in to help us, bless, them, but never for keeps. Enter Sara Bhalla, our long-distance, high-school colleague! Sara began to participate on phone meetings and immediately re-configured our too-vague marketing concerns into specific questions—and assigned to herself to answer them properly. Over the summer she sent us excellent, well-researched reports with data we had not considered, and listed pros and cons of various options. She consulted with us about our publishing platform, Medium.com vs. a stand-alone site; the ways in which our initiatives had been most and least successful; how the components of our work—events, blogs, social media posts—play well together or don’t; audience confusion; and breaking up the various parts of our sites that “read” more clearly to the different age groups we serve. Finally, Sara ended the summer with us with her analysis of options to maximize the impact of our content and thoughts about expanding out from Philadelphia to youth across the nation. Before COVID, Sara was a remote partner par excellence. On the phone, in a voice full of poise and consideration, Sara consolidated her work with us as a fully equal, professional partner whose insight greatly influenced our work thereafter. She would be my first pick to have in my university class or on staff. She will enrich any program fortunate enough to get her. Lorene Cary Director, #VoteThatJawn Senior Lecturer, UPenn Creative Writing Author: Ladysitting, My Year With Nana at the End of Her Century; Playwright: My General Tubman "