Alumni Mentors

Sarabeth Budenstein is a Business Process Development Specialist within Accenture Federal Service’s (AFS) Technology Consulting Practice. Sarabeth joined AFS after graduating from Georgia Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s in industrial engineering. She has experience supporting federal agencies through modeling and analyzing data to inform decision making. Sarabeth has served as Corporate Citizenship lead for Accenture’s metro DC women’s employee resource group – organizing volunteers for a variety of community engagements. In her free time, Sarabeth enjoys travelling and exploring the DC area.

 

Expertise: Community and Volunteer Engagement, Event Logistics, Communications, Data Management 

Hannah was the community manager at Vanderbilt University. She graduated college in 2022 with a major in computer science and mathematics. She now live in San Francisco and works for Meta as a software engineer on the Instagram Live team. She says that being a part of TOM was one of the most impactful parts of college for her, and she's super excited to continue working with the organization. Her responsibility increased year after year, as she assumed different leadership roles. As a TOM Fellow, she organized different covid-safe events like a mask-making party, and a semester-long "make-a-thon" to comply with Vanderbilt policies about in-person meetups.

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Expertise: Community events, planning and logistics advice, being a community organizer

I was a TOM Fellow from Fall 2020 - Spring 2022 at Florida International University. I am now a Landscape and Urban Designer with a background in Architecture, based in Miami, Florida. While I currently work at the scale of city parks, I really enjoyed the opportunity to explore product-scale design with TOM projects while in school. As a mentor, I can offer advice in the event planning centered on community engagement and other soft skills necessary for TOM projects: creating a pitch for professors or community representatives, connecting to local stakeholders, and increasing a presence for students on campus. I recall the difficulty of starting the TOM student chapter at my university in 2020, because very few people knew about TOM Global. I hope that my experience as a student and alumni can help other students bring TOM's mission closer to their communities.

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Expertise: Event planning, community building and engagement, connecting with local partners

Bradley was one of the founding members of TOM:Vanderbilt, and ran the org for 3 years before handing it off to younger students. TOM has been the most impactful and important thing he was involved in both in college and since, and he looks forward to the opportunity to have a continuing impact. He has experience with all facets of starting and running a TOM community from the ground up but specific expertise in networking and growing with other similar minded groups on campus, being the face of the organization and building a community from scratch. Even if it's just a quick question Bradley would love to connect and share his expertise so feel free to reach out.

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Expertise: Starting from scratch, breaking the rules, networking within the community, building a strong team, maker outreach, grassroots fundraising 

I was a TOM Fellow at Vanderbilt University a few years back and was involved with the community my four years there. I graduated just this past spring with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and loved the way TOM gave engineers an outlet to learn how to work with real clients, tackle difficult problems, and rapid prototyping. I'm currently attending law school at the University of Virginia with hopes of becoming a patent lawyer. I originally got involved with TOM because I believe that service is an important part of life, and the chance to provide service through tangible, useful creations to disabled individuals in my community seemed like an incredible opportunity (and I hope you think so too!). Being a fellow gives individuals an opportunity to grow as leaders and create a community impact. For me, TOM was the perfect cross-section between community service and education.

 

Expertise: Leadership teams, running a Makeathon, resource creation

Rachel is a second year medical student from Atlanta, GA, studying to be a Physical Rehabilitation Physician. She graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2020 with a degree in Neuroscience and Cognitive Studies and was one of the founders of TOM:Vanderbilt in 2017. She was originally Head of Need Knower recruitment and then went on to serve as a mentor for the position during my senior year. She helped put on three successful Makeathons and recruited over 30 Need Knowers. She is extremely passionate about assistive technology and the amazing difference it can make and I hope to continue to be able to have an impact through TOM and my career as a doctor! 

 

Expertise: Need-Knower recruitment, establishing community partners

Noah is a Junior at UPenn from Boca Raton, Florida studying Electrical Engineering and Business in the M&T Dual Degree program at the University of Pennsylvania. He has a passion for building devices for people with disabilities and the elderly and hopes to pursue that after graduation. Outside of his courses, Noah is the co-president of PIPAC (Penn Israel Public Affairs Committee), a member of the Shabbatones A-Capella group, and generally very involved with the Jewish community on campus. Noah also spent last summer interning at TOM HQ in Tel Aviv! Noah also loves playing soccer, going to the beach, mountain biking, skimboarding, scuba diving, and trying new things.

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Expertise: - Event planning, finding Need Knowers, CAD, Electronics, and Partnerships

Sara is a senior at Vanderbilt University majoring in Child Development and Medicine, Health & Society. She has been a member of Vanderbilt: TOM since 2021, serving as president from 2022-2023. Throughout her time as president, she organized a Make-a-thon, coordinated a human-centered design workshop, contributed to a Go-Baby-Go event, and participated in the TOM Global Fellowship. She is happy to mentor individuals looking to organize a make-a-thon, start a TOM chapter in their community, connect with need-knowers and community partners, or any other TOM-related inquiries!

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Expertise: - Organizing Makeathons, Starting your TOM community, connecting with Need-Knowers and community partners

Michelle is a senior mechanical engineer at Cooper Union interested in assistive technology. She enjoys the collaborative and hands-on nature of engineering and its profound power to improve people's lives. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family, reading and nature.  I can offer a voice of confidence, help with communication skills and pitching TOM, tips for thinking in a user-centered design frame of mind, and am always interested in hearing about the projects people are working on and offering insights!

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Expertise: Communication skills, pitching TOM, user-centric design