Ask an Alum: Sarah Gustafson '17 on Building a Career in Construction

By: Sarah-Mae McCullough, Editorial Content Manager​​​​​

Ahead of this year's SAAS in the City on April 25, we catch up with our alumni panelists, who will share more about their journeys at the event. Learn more about SAAS in the City and get your tickets here. 

Speaking at Seattle Academy’s largest community celebration of the year is “such a SAAS thing for me to do” says alum Sarah Gustafson ‘17, describing how she feels about participating in this year’s SAAS in the City.

Translation: It’s something that may feel a little scary but will ultimately help her grow.

Sarah grew in many concrete ways while at SAAS, like discovering her passion for architecture and construction and developing relevant skills through a Senior Project and Independent Study. But she also cites a less tangible lesson gleaned from the SAAS experience: “Life is about getting out of your comfort zone.”

“You're not going to be successful if you just keep your head down and stick on the same path.” she says. 

Sarah’s path so far has involved studying architecture at California Polytechnic State University, and pivoting into a construction career, where she does work she finds satisfying in a largely male-dominated field. She’s spent the past few years working on a new hospital building and is also on her company’s recruitment team where she strives to welcome a diverse range of people into the industry – including “people who don’t necessarily look like what you’d think a construction manager looks like.” 

Ahead of this year’s SAAS in the City, where Sarah will be one of our featured alumni speakers, we chatted with her about life at and after SAAS. 

After SAAS, what led you to study architecture at California Polytechnic?

During my sophomore year at SAAS, I had to write an essay about someone successful, and I decided to write about the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. That assignment made me realize that architecture was a career that I was interested in. Prior to that, it had just never occurred to me that that was something I could pursue. 

Throughout my time at SAAS, I tailored my experience to get an education in architecture. I did an Independent Study where I worked with Innovations and Arts teacher Tom Flood and designed a hypothetical building within certain parameters. Then for my Senior Project, I did an internship at an architecture firm called Heliotrope. Also, the woodshop experience I got at SAAS was really wonderful. Having a large portfolio and experience with different arts mediums really helped me get into colleges. 

Polytechnic had the number-two architecture program in the country – it was such a great decision to attend college there. 

Is what other ways did SAAS set you up for success? 

I love the Culture of Performance at SAAS. I love that everyone has to get a certain amount of credits in every medium – everyone has to do dance, everyone has to do vocal ensemble, for example. It really does help, especially if you go into a career where you’re leading meetings and having to collaborate with people. 

SAAS does a really good job at creating a whole person versus just someone who can fill out a bunch of bubbles correctly on a test. 

What were the most memorable experiences for you at SAAS? 

The first one that comes to mind is the Senior Yukon Trip. The bonding that you have with all your classmates, even though you're all about to leave, is amazing. I also did the New Orleans trip my sophomore year. We went down there for two weeks and helped build and restore houses and did some wetland restoration. That was quite rewarding and in line with my love of building.

All of the performances with The Onions jazz choir were memorable, and I also played volleyball. Our team was pretty new, so it was really fun joining a team and seeing it develop and grow over four years.

What advice would you give to SAAS students? 

Looking back at SAAS, it was more special than I realized when I was there. Just soak it all in. Get as involved as possible, from the class trips to extracurriculars. 

Don’t be afraid to tailor your experience at SAAS. Talk to your advisors and your teachers about what you think you want to do. The teachers are going to listen to you if you have a passion that you want to pursue. And if it's not a class at SAAS, that's fine. Speak up for what you want to do, and the teachers are going to help you. They're going to make it happen. 

Tell me about your career post-college – what have been some of the highlights? 

After college, I was really interested in construction. I wanted to see how things are actually put together. I now work for WebCore, and I've been on the same project since June of 2023, building a hospital, which is really fascinating work. It's incredibly complicated and important – it’s a crazy puzzle.

My favorite parts of my current role are collaborating with the people I work with and seeing something actually come to life. That’s always been something I’ve loved – physically seeing your work and leaving an impact. 

How do you feel about speaking at SAAS in the City this year? 

It's definitely a full circle moment. I'm happy to talk about my career, because even though I was exposed to architecture at SAAS, I still didn't know about women in construction. Being able to talk about my experience working in construction is something that I look forward to. Hopefully students can see that anyone can work at a general contracting firm.