Sonia Rao is EducationNC’s spring 2023 reporting and engagement fellow. She is a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying journalism. She is from Morrisville, North Carolina, where she attended Green Hope High School. Sonia has reported for The Virginian-Pilot, The Charlotte Observer, and her student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, where she is currently the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer.

Last year, she took a gap year where she worked at a bed and breakfast in the Puerto Rico rainforest, volunteered at a shelter at the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, and worked at a community center near the refugee camp in Samos, Greece.

She loves to travel, learn new languages, and read fiction.