Sacha Cartagena

Sacha Cartagena is a first generation American, being born in the United States to a mother from the Dominican Republic and a father from Colombia. She is now a doctoral student in Exceptional Education at the University of Central Florida. Her research is focused on the preparation of educators to work with students with disabilities, especially those with severe disabilities and meeting their social/emotional/behavioral needs. For her dissertation Sacha is proposing to develop an online module using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to teach pre-service educators about implementing evidence- based practices for students with severe disabilities.

Knowing education is still not mandated in many countries, her mother instilled the value of an education in Sacha. Not knowing what she wanted to do when she graduated from high school, and hearing there were many jobs available in special education, she took an introductory course in special education, loved it, and completed her undergrad in special education. Sacha then taught for six years and went to graduate school to pursue her Ph.D. She is planning for a future career teaching educators.

Sacha joined DISES to connect with the international special education community and to learn more about the unique challenges of international special education. She loves to travel and has visited 13 countries. Each time she travels she makes it a point to learn about their education system. In addition to touring in other countries, she has done volunteering such as teaching English to children and pouring concrete floors in the Dominican Republic.

In the Dominican Republic, Sacha learned that while education is technically compulsory, there is little enforcement of this law. As a result, students start education at different ages, graduate at different ages, and about 40% of students drop out before the 8 th grade. Only a few schools offer special education services, resulting in most youth with disabilities not enrolled in school. The country is currently working on large scale education reform, including more funding for more teacher training, updated curriculum, and increased access to equitable education for all students.