8th graders step outside their usual identity as students to temporarily take on teaching roles in Jacob Taylor-Mosquera’s Spanish class. The activity, “Your Turn to Profe,” helps middle schoolers master the grammatical concepts and vocabulary they’ve been learning. Plus, it encourages them to empathize more deeply with teachers.
Andrew Spitzer, Digital Marketing & Communications Manager
On the Cover:
Students participating in Aviation Robotics—one branch of SAAS’s robust Robotics Program—mark the end of each spring season with Flight Fest. At Sixty Acres Park in Redmond, they fly radio-controlled planes and launch rockets they’ve designed. Read more about Robotics on page 70.
9th grade English students visited the studio of SAAS Artist-in-Residence Adrian Brandon ’11, who created a large site-specific painting for our new Home of the Upper School. Adrian spoke with students about his creative process and how his work engages with activism, offering powerful context as they prepared to read Bryan Stevenson's "Just Mercy," a memoir exploring injustice in the criminal justice system.
SEATTLE ACADEMY NON-DISCRIMINATION POLICY
Seattle Academy admits qualified students and provides Equal Employment Opportunities to all individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, gender presentation, and sexual orientation), national origin, disability, genetic information, marital status, or other legally protected statuses in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. It expressly prohibits any form of harassment or discrimination of the same in any of its programs, activities, educational policies, scholarships or other financial aid programs, and terms and conditions of employment.
8. More Than a Building
One Block, One Community. What our new Home of the Upper School means for SAAS
16. SAAS Spotlights
News from our community
24. Finding True North
Preparing students for the future, not the past
29. Making the Connection
Inside our interdisciplinary approach to learning
47. Athletic Ascent
Sports highlights from the year
56. Pitching Their Plan
How student leaders helped launch our inaugural Baseball team
58. Innovating the Future
New building, new era for our Innovations department
68. Alumni in Action
Meet USC Engineering student Della Smith '23
70. Design. Build. Lead. Mentorship is in the DNA of our Robotics Program
Students in Forensic Science practice using statistical calculations to analyze their own fingerprints. The course covers a variety of methods for interpreting evidence from a crime scene, drawing on scientific principles, mathematical reasoning, students’ analytical skills, and an understanding of the legal system.
78. Seattle Challenge
Building purpose and community through civic action
80. Learning on the Job
12th graders step into the professional world for Senior Projects
99. Mental Edge
A unique aspect of SAAS athletics: mental training
106. Arts Action
Creative offerings at SAAS are as broad as they are deep
130. 8th Grade Moving Up
A joyful sendoff for the Class of 2029
132. Celebrating the Class of 2025
Highlights from this year’s commencement
136. Far Out
Seeing the world through our Outdoor & Travel Program
144. Alumni in Action
Supporting NASA missions, building hospitals, and more
150. Meet the Board
New members of SAAS’s Board of Trustees
mOre thAn A building
by giselle furlOnge And rOb phillips, cO-heAds Of schOOl
In the fall of 1983, SAAS was an idea, sparked by a small group of committed parents. Both the idea and the people behind it were bold, full of promise, and propelled by a sense of urgency. With visionary leadership, an enterprising spirit, and fearless determination, those people rapidly shaped that idea into a living, breathing school community seemingly overnight.
This September, we’ll mark another defining milestone in SAAS history, one born of the same sense of purpose and unity. Our new Home of the Upper School will open its doors for the first day of classes on September 4, 2025, fully activating our shared dream of a unified campus. One schOOl. One blOck. One cOmmunity. A bOld step fOrwArd-embrAced by dOers And mAde reAl by All Of us.
Faculty and staff in 1985, two years after Seattle Academy was founded. Pictured at top are Bill Biddle, Pete Phillips, Rusty Ralph, and Joan Fiset (top row, left to right); Anne Eggler, Rick Marting, Tom Vezzani, Doug Potter, Gayle Pearl, and Ann Eno (middle row); and Gwen Jackson, Stewart Hawk, Melinda Mueller, Chris O'Leary, and Paul Mendes (bottom row).
Below, current Innovations department faculty on a hard-hat tour of the Home of the Upper School this spring, photographed in the open-air welding courtyard, just outside our new metal shop. See page 64 for descriptions of our newest Innovations course offerings. Pictured left to right are Caldwell Rohrbach ’08, Caleb Campbell, Scottie Lambert, Jason Vasquez, Mark Betnel, Spencer Laube ’08, Tom Flood, EJ Renner, Ginger Reinauer, and Tyler Hartanov.
Student involvement has been a driving force throughout every stage of the building project, from the earliest design conversations to the final selection of furniture. Our Middle and Upper School students’ ideas, feedback, and priorities helped shape not just how the space looks, but how it functions for learning, collaboration, and community. With student voice and choice at the center, the Home of the Upper School is a reflection of the students who will bring it to life every day.
Equally important was the role of faculty and staff, whose passion for student-centered learning informed the building’s educational design. From the layout of classrooms to the functionality of shared spaces, faculty provided critical input to ensure the environment supports a wide range of teaching styles and student needs. Their ideas helped translate the SAAS values into physical spaces that are flexible, engaging, and future-ready.
Like any transformative campus endeavor, part of the thrill lies in the novelty of the building itself, and this one offers so much to celebrate. Each learning and community gathering space sparks its own kind of anticipation.
From the spacious outdoor courtyard to the inviting indoor commons, every detail has been designed with intention to promote human connection and enhance the kind of interdisciplinary and innovative learning that has always characterized a SAAS education.
Students will have access to dedicated spaces for innovation and tangible creation and design work:
In Middle School Innovations classes, students think creatively and critically as they tackle problems with real impact—like how to make the SAAS campus more inclusive. Below: 6th graders brainstormed and prototyped ideas for campus “neighborhoods,” snack dispensers, robotic companions, and more. Opposite: 7th graders applied architectural principles to reimagine classrooms and commons, creating scale drawings and 3-D models with support from guest experts—including engineers from BNBuilders and Brian Oseran ’96, SAAS trustee and Chair of the Home of the Upper School Building Task Force.
CUSTODIAL
a fully equipped wood shop, digital fabrication spaces, and metalworking and welding studios.
COURTYARD
130
Music production classrooms and recording studios will double as performance venues with doors that open to the courtyard, inviting the whole community in.
Classrooms filled with natural light are tailored for collaborative, projectbased learning, and a cutting-edge kitchen will nourish the entire campus.
Yet beyond the physical structure, the true energy comes from what this building will make possible. Its true power lies in the opportunities it will unlock. The Home of the Upper School is more than a collection of rooms, studios, and labs.
It’s a dynamic environment where curiosity is sparked, leadership is nurtured, and connections flourish. It’s a hub for interdisciplinary learning, where students will tackle relevant problems, create across disciplines, and engage deeply with one another and the world around them.
With the entire campus united on one block, this new space will strengthen community bonds and expand our reach. It will be a launching pad for ideas, leadership, and meaningful connection, igniting innovation, collaboration, and purpose that extend into the broader Seattle community.
Our Home of the Upper School marks a new chapter in the book of SAAS history. With our campus unified, the culture of creativity, bold thinking and action, and community engagement that define SAAS will have even more room to grow— reaching outward into the city and forward into the future.
Upper School History students, taught by Lisa Feiertag '02, were invited to review the archival photos selected for a "history wall," which will be installed in the new building's second-floor Commons. They offered thoughtful feedback that will influence the final design.
In May 2025, four seniors worked at BNBuilders for their month-long Senior Project, attending weekly subcontractor, safety, and client meetings for the Upper School project.
“Seeing the construction site and how all the complicated parts have to come together was really cool," reflected Dylan Jeffries '25. Read more about Senior Projects on page 80.
FIRE SPRINKLER PUMP ROOM
SAAS SPOTLIGHTS
Save the Date for Our Next SAAS Summit
—and “The Big Launch” of Our New
Upper School Building!
Our signature speaker series returns October 4, this time in celebration of our new Upper School building.
You’re invited! After the new Home of the Upper School opens this fall, we’ll host a series of events to explore and experience everything that makes this building such a game-changer for our school and community.
On October 4, don’t miss "The Big Launch: One Block, One Community," a celebration of our new building and connected campus! We’ll gather for a reception and then set out on interactive tours—through the new woodshop, metal shop, clean-tech spaces, and welding patio, and across five floors of classrooms, commons, and collaboration areas.
The celebration continues with SAAS Summit, our signature speaker series that “brings together students, educators, families, and community leaders to have honest, meaningful conversations about the issues that matter most today,” says Co-Head of School Giselle Furlonge. Now in its fourth year, SAAS Summit has become a powerful expression of our mission in action—encouraging our community to question boldly, think deeply, and contribute meaningfully to the world.
SNEAK PEEK:
In the leadup to the new building opening, Rob and Giselle have been releasing a series of preview videos exploring themes of community, cohesion, and purpose-built spaces. Scan the QR code to watch.
The theme is Launch—a continued exploration of leadership, creativity, and purpose. Moderator and management consultant Makenzie Brandon ’09 will return, joined by a dynamic panel of alumni, innovators, civic leaders, and changemakers from the SAAS community who will share stories of rising to meet challenges, embracing change, and leading with vision.
Mark your calendar for an afternoon of inspiration, connection, and bold ideas. We can’t wait to see you there!
Our most recent SAAS Summit keynote panel, in January 2025, featured powerhouse speakers including (left to right) panel moderator Makenzie Brandon ’09 and panelists Chris Gregoire (22nd Governor of Washington; CEO, Challenge Seattle); Stone Gossard (guitarist; founding member of Pearl Jam); Merrie Williamson (technology executive and AI expert); Adrian Brandon '11 (artist and muralist); and Cliff Avril (former Seattle Seahawk, NFL Pro-Bowler, and Super Bowl Champion).
Watch
At our October 2024 SAAS Summit, “Climate, Conservation, and Citizenship,” nearly 70 panelists and moderators explored how courageous leadership and cutting-edge innovation can help shape a healthier planet, vibrant communities, and a sustainable future. Our keynote speakers were Sally Jewell (former U.S. Secretary of the Interior); Martinique Grigg (Board Chair at evo and SAAS); Maggie Walker (board member of the University of Washington Foundation); and climate entrepreneurs Rahul Shendure (CEO of CarbonBuilt), Alec Turnbull ’04 (founder of Climate Film Festival), and Nithya Menon ’12 (engineer and founder of Okra Solar).
past Summit keynotes at the QR code!
Community Building Events
Year-round, SAAS hosts events that bring our students, families, and extended community together. Here’s a look at what’s ahead.
AUGUST 24
Alumni HoUS Open House
AUGUST 27
Family Summer Social
SEPTEMBER 2 & 3
Grade-Level Orientations
SEPTEMBER 8
New Parent Breakfasts Begin
SEPTEMBER 11
Middle School Back-to-School Night
SEPTEMBER 19
Fallapalooza at Starfire Sports
SEPTEMBER 25
Upper School Back-to-School Night
OCTOBER 4
The Big Launch + SAAS Summit: One Block, One Community
OCTOBER 8
Family Affinity Night
OCTOBER 25
Open House (Admissions Event)
NOVEMBER 15
Open House (Admissions Event)
SAAS SPOTLIGHTS
ACHIEVEMENT IN ACTION
From individual honors to team-wide recognition, SAAS students excel in and out of the classroom. In the 2024-2025 school year, 28 members of the Class of 2025 were named Washington State Honor Students, placing them among the top 10% statewide by GPA. And three SAAS teams—Girls Tennis, Boys Golf, and Girls Volleyball—were named State Academic Champions for their outstanding academic performance.
SAAS Students Win 40+ Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
Student artists and writers at SAAS were honored with 40 regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards—and a national one—from one of the country’s longest-running educational initiatives for creative teens.
SAAS had several Gold Key winners, the highest regional honor for exceptional writing and artwork. In the West region-at-large category, our winners were Maddie Rosales '26 (in the category of Short Story), Keira Smiley '25 (Ceramics & Glass), Satchel Gorden '26 (Mixed Media), and Simon Hajduk '27, Mirabel Malcolm '25, Kaelyn O’Neal '26, Rhiannon Root '25, and Jasmine Yi '25 (Photography). After winning a Gold Key in regionals, Simon’s photo, “One Happy Family,” was awarded a Silver Key in nationals!
While visiting Norway, Simon Hajduk snapped this photo of sheep on a hillside—later earning a national Silver Key award. Satchel Gorden created his mixed-media piece using paint and skateboards.
Success in Competition
Our Upper School Robotics team, SAASquatch, made SAAS history this year by bringing home two engineering awards in the FIRST Robotics Competition. At the Sammamish competition, our team earned the Quality Award, recognizing their precision engineering. At the Bonney Lake competition, we won the Creativity Award for our innovative hanging mechanism, which successfully lifted our 110-pound robot off the ground—the best hanging system in the state! These awards are a testament to the dedication, creativity, and engineering excellence of our students. We couldn’t be prouder! Read more about our Robotics Program on page 70.
SAAS’s Speech & Debate courses provide Upper School students with a pair of rigorous electives taken during the regular school day. Students can also participate on the extracurricular Speech & Debate team and compete in categories from Informative Speaking and Original Oratory to Spoken Word Poetry and Humorous Interpretation. Our very own Speech Team Captain Carmen Spoonemore '25 won first place in the Washington State Speech and Debate Championship for Informative Speaking this year, advancing to Nationals! Two other Cardinals placed at State, too: Hamsini Ramanathan '28 (9th in State for Informative Speaking) and Alex Hancock '27 (8th in State for Spoken Word Poetry).
Our Ethics Bowl teams flexed their critical thinking and collaboration skills at the State competition this spring, analyzing and discussing tricky moral dilemmas. “Coach Mike Walden and I are so proud of this group, from the senior leadership to the younger philosophers,” says Ethics Bowl coach Gerald Elliott. “They engaged in conversations centered on morality together through the fall and winter, and their hard work paid off.” Our Ethics Bowl Team Two took home the Civil Dialogue Award at State, celebrating their ability to think on their feet in non-combative discourse.
Congratulations to Thomas Gust '27, Leif Borwick '28, and Theo Lipson '27
State Tournament this year. A professional judge presided over each trial, with practicing lawyers and judges evaluating students. “We are so incredibly proud of the team and the immense time and effort they put into the case this year,” says coach and Rhetoric Department Chair Amanda McCarther.
Hamsini Ramanathan '28 earned a first place award in a national STEM competition for high schoolers this spring. Her project—involving finetuning a protein language model on the TPS (Terpene Synthase) enzyme family—won in the Biomedical Sciences Poster Presentations category of the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Hamsini has already started researching for next year’s project, she says, which will focus on effective therapies for different types of cancers.
Ahmir Huggins '25 emceed the Rainier Scholars 25th Anniversary Celebration this spring, sharing stories, insights, and jokes with over 1,100 attendees. SAAS has a longstanding partnership with Rainier Scholars, a nonprofit supporting students who are underrepresented on college campuses with 12 years of academic enrichment, mental health support, college counseling, and leadership and career development. Next academic year, 36 Rainier Scholars will be enrolled at SAAS!
A New Mentorship Program Connects Cardinals
As part of SAAS's commitment to fostering meaningful cross-grade connections and peer mentorship, Julie Holstad (Assistant Head of Middle School), Alisha Agard '11 (Upper School faculty), and Allison Reddy (Upper School dean) created Cardinal Connectors, which pairs 9th grade mentors with 6th grade advisory groups to lead games and activities and talk about their experience at SAAS. While the Middle and Upper School programs are rightfully distinct, the mentorship initiative supports student connection across grade levels, helps Middle Schoolers adjust to a new environment, and allows new Upper Schoolers to start building leadership skills right away.
“The more that we can set up these kinds of situations where there’s a shared experience, the more that everyone feels part of the broader community,” says Julie. A sense of “I’m a Middle School student, or I’m an Upper School student” becomes “I’m a SAAS student.”
Cardinal Connectors joins a robust selection of leadership opportunities for SAAS students—such as Student Facilitators, Associated Student Body (ASB), Cardinal Council, Affinity Groups, Middle School Senate, and the Middle School Seattle Academy Leadership Team (SALT). After a successful pilot this past winter and spring, it’s planned to expand in the 2025-2026 school year.
Student Initiative: A Spring Symposium
In May 2025, SAAS's student-run Nuclear Energy Society hosted its first major event: the Nuclear Energy Society Symposium. The event brought together over 100 attendees—students, industry professionals, and nuclear advocates—for an afternoon of insight and exchange.
NES was launched in 2024 by a group of SAAS students determined to bridge what they saw as a knowledge gap between those familiar with the nuclear industry and those not, including people who might
By Rob Phillips, Co-Head of School
“He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.” – Leonardo Da Vinci
It’s always best to start a journey with a clear sense of direction, and long before we trusted the GPS units in our phones and cars to find the way, travelers found their bearings by the quadrant, the astrolabe, the sextant—and even the Viking sunstone.
The compass is perhaps the most universal navigational tool, but even the best compass is subject to inaccuracies, sometimes distorted by solar storms, the magnetic North and South Poles, or other anomalies.
When the compass stops working, it’s at best disorienting, and at worst dangerous.
In our current age—as ecosystems, political and economic systems, technology such as artificial intelligence, and social norms change rapidly—we have more questions than ever, and confounding questions are outpacing reliable answers. It’s difficult to get our bearings, and hard to be confident that we’re on the right path.
In recent years, I’ve felt on more than one occasion that my compass has stopped working. Chances are I’m not alone in feeling that way.
But we can still find a True North by using the stars, the sunrise, and the sunset.
I believe that finding True North and then charting a path accordingly is the fundamental task of education. It’s how we find a path through the entrenched and emerging problems that our students, societies, and global community will be grappling with for the foreseeable future.
In this rapidly changing world, we have to beware false certainty and the paralysis borne of uncertainty, and the related danger that if everything matters, then in practice nothing matters.
So what does matter? How should we prepare this rising generation in an era of accelerating change? What tools do we need to equip our students with, and how do we prepare them to use those tools given that we aren’t really sure what they’ll need to use them to do?
How do we find True North?
The most compelling answers I’ve heard to those questions came from a SAAS senior. Our conversation occurred in May of 2020—we connected for a phone call, since we knew we wouldn’t see each other at
graduation, given pandemic restrictions.
I asked how he felt about graduating in a Zoom ceremony, and in a world gone sideways.
He thought for a bit, and then, with a quiet confidence, said, “I feel like I’m ready.”
Knowing him, I was sure there was far more to that simple answer, so I pushed further, asking, “How can you feel ready when none of us has any real sense of what’s happening right now, much less what’s around the corner?”
He paused again, and then responded, “I think that’s the point. I’m pretty sure that being ready has to mean dealing with the unknown. If you can only deal with what you already know, doesn’t that mean you’re not ready?”
Great answer, but knowing him, I was sure there was still more. So I dug in deeper, and his responses didn’t disappoint. As he continued, speaking about readiness, trust, and selfreflection, I started frantically taking notes while listening. This was important stuff.
His first observation centered on reflection and developing a deep understanding of himself. He said, “I think a big part of what I’m taking with me from SAAS is knowing my strengths and my limits.
I learned to trust myself, because I knew that my teachers knew me and believed in me.
They knew when I needed encouragement, when I needed
a push, and when I needed to sort things out on my own. They knew that because they knew ME.”
He paused for a moment and then added, “You know, I hear from my friends at other schools that there is absolutely no incentive to take risks. Their parents and teachers tell them that it’s OK to fail, but they don’t really mean it. But at SAAS, the ‘try things and learn from them, whether it works out or not,’ was real.”
Lots to unpack there. My first takeaway: Relationships precede performance, and trust is fundamental to both the relationship and to performance. That trust is the foundation of curiosity. And curiosity gets all kinds of validation in theory, but in practice not so much.
In a time of immense change, what could be more essential than a curiosity that translates to an ability to ask great questions, including unwelcome questions, and to keep looking at problems from multiple angles—not just the angles that everyone else is looking at them from?
Absent trust, students won’t formulate those questions, or take the risk to ask them out loud, or propose unique and innovative answers. A fear of failure is toxic, because it undermines curiosity. But trust enables and strengthens curiosity, which translates to discovery, innovation, and an entrepreneurial mindset.
It all starts with, “I learned to trust myself, because my teachers knew me and believed in me.”
The student’s second observation was equally important and, in some important respects, built on his first. He said, “SAAS taught me that it’s important to have a plan but that it’s even more important to be able to respond when things don’t go according to plan.
I got to do it over and over: Have a plan, practice the plan, be ready to come up with a new plan.”
I asked for some specific examples, knowing that he had a range of academic interests, and was an accomplished dancer and competitive multi-sport athlete. He thought for a moment and said:
“I learned that in a bunch of different ways and in really different places definitely in American Studies and in other big Humanities presentations, when you couldn’t predict the questions the teachers would ask. It happened in science classes, where experiments in the lab almost never go the way you think they will, and then you have to keep revising your hypothesis.
And I don’t know if this is going to make sense, but the lessons were different but mostly the same in dance and sports. When you’re dancing at the final performance with the group, it’s always different in the moment than exactly how you rehearsed it. And as an athlete, you have a game plan, but your opponent does too, and they’re trying to make your plan into an obstacle course.”
The old military adage of “no plan survives contact with the
enemy” came to mind as I listened to his answer.
The takeaway: Creativity is the wellspring of adaptability and the antidote to paralysis.
The ability to adapt in real time, to evolve a plan in moments of action or create a new plan is essential—especially when the stakes are high. It’s why his answer to my original question started with “I feel ready.” And it’s why creativity isn’t a “nice-tohave”; it is a practical necessity.
At this point, I was scribbling furiously, just catching up in my notes—and then he added a new theme: relevance.
His final point was a combination of self-reflection, contrasted with what he observed in others, especially graduates who weren’t SAAS students.
He said, “I feel like my education has been just that: my education It’s not a bunch of hoops I jumped through for somebody else.
But lots of my friends who went to other schools felt like they’re doing work for the sake of work. They don’t see a connection between what they’re asked to do and why it matters. The work doesn’t feel relevant to them, because it’s not.”
More than five years after that phone conversation in May of 2020, those words still ring in my ears. “The work doesn’t feel relevant to them, because it’s not.”
His confidence stemmed from a belief that he’d been educated for the future. His friends’ lack of confidence stemmed from the
recognition that they were being educated for the past
Jumping through hoops for somebody else may require trust, but not the good kind. It does not translate into an education that is relevant, resilient, aspirational, or actionable. It is an approach that rewards obedience and conformity. The goal is a trained response NOT to question, or to imagine, or to create.
Unfortunately, “jumping through hoops” sums up all too well the mindset of much of the American educational establishment, both in public and private schools. For those schools, the goal is to curate students for predetermined outcomes, rather than prepare them for the dynamic world that awaits them on the other side of high school graduation.
Despite what it says on their websites, a more accurate mission statement would be “Don’t Ask Questions – Just Follow the Plan.”
A classroom approach of “doing work for the sake of doing work” is real, pervasive, and tragic. What good is being able to jump high and far if you can’t jump until someone puts the hoop up for you?
And that brings us back to “What matters most…”
At SAAS, we are relentlessly focused on maintaining a culture of curiosity, creativity, adaptation, and innovation.
What does that look like in action?
It looks like SAAS graduates who possess a tempered optimism that prepares them for the world ahead and who can demonstrate empathy and competence under pressure. They recognize their own strengths and limitations and appreciate the strengths and limitations of others.
It looks like SAAS graduates who are able to integrate collaboration and independence, and understand how to build the trust that integration requires. They know how to overcome obstacles and find meaningful solutions to real problems.
It looks like a rising generation of leaders able to look at a problem from multiple perspectives, articulate an original vision, create a path forward, and adapt as the context changes.
At SAAS, we know where True North is.
We are a community actively united in our mission to challenge students to “Question, Imagine, and Create in order to Contribute Boldly to a changing world.”
At SAAS, the work feels relevant, because it is.
We’re preparing students for the future, not the past.
And our graduates feel ready…… because they are.
12th grade physics students use force plates with sensors connected to a nearby screen to observe how all actions have equal and opposite reactions.
By Giselle Furlonge, Co-Head of School
With courses that provoke critical thinking, a SAAS education mirrors the complexity of our changing world. A look inside our interdisciplinary approach and what’s coming next.
At SAAS, the pursuit of relevance, meaning, and action is not simply a slogan; it’s a design principle, an academic vision, and a commitment to equip students with both the confidence and the tools they’ll need to navigate and contribute to a rapidly evolving world. This vision comes to life through our interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning, one that bridges disciplines, encourages collaboration, and challenges students to apply what they know in new and unfamiliar contexts.
At SAAS, relevance is more than just connecting classroom content to students’ present-day interests. Providing a relevant education is about students developing a mindset that can recognize patterns, weigh consequences, and make meaning out of complexity. Meaning blooms when kids discover how abstract ideas like justice, freedom, identity, and innovation ripple through history, technology, literature, and their own lives. And action begins when they see themselves not as passive learners, but as active participants in shaping their communities and futures.
Honors English 11 students visualize their understanding of a poem with posters, then present them to classmates—a common practice for analyzing text in the course.
“At SAAS, we believe that learning should reflect life— interdisciplinary and interconnected—because that’s the world our students are growing into. We prepare students for the complexity of the world around them by creating learning experiences where they can explore how ideas intersect, inform, and reshape each other.”
—Giselle Furlonge, Co-Head of School
The Interdisciplinary Imperative
In today’s world, problems don’t exist in silos. Local, national, and global challenges like climate change, technological ethics, public health, and housing crises all demand multifaceted thinking.
At SAAS, we believe that learning should reflect life—interdisciplinary and interconnected—because that’s the world our students are growing into. We prepare students for the complexity of the world around them by creating learning experiences where they can explore how ideas intersect, inform, and reshape each other.
Our goal in every course offered is to create gateways— into history, into science, into architecture, and so much more— so that students can achieve a deeper understanding of themselves and each other. This kind of teaching matters because it helps students make sense of the world and their place within it. Interdisciplinary education cultivates adaptable thinkers. It provides kids with flexible cognitive tools: critical thinking, contextual reasoning, persuasive communication, and empathy. These are the foundations not
just of academic success, but of civic responsibility and lifelong learning.
Whether in math, science, the arts, or humanities, interdisciplinary learning compels students to understand not only the “what” but the “why” and the “so what.” It connects academic content to larger human concerns, inviting students to ask:
• Why does this matter?
• What does this tell us about ourselves or our world?
• How can I use this knowledge to understand and articulate what I believe?
• How can I use this knowledge to make an impact?
These questions move students from content knowledge to relevance, from relevance to meaning, and from meaning to action. Students’ individual answers to these questions cultivate empathy, agency, and a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves.
“SAAS creates opportunities for students to challenge the world around them, to take risks, be innovative, and launch out into the deep to make an impact—which is exactly what the world needs right now.”
—Marcus Petit ’09
“SAAS
Above: In Foundations of World Language, 6th graders explore how language connects to culture, geography, and human thought. The goal: a deeper understanding of language’s purpose, structure, and power. Opposite page: In 6th grade Science, students apply their knowledge of the water cycle by designing green stormwater solutions—like living roofs and rain gardens—and presenting their ideas to improve SAAS and the wider community.
creates opportunities for students to challenge the world around them, to take risks, be innovative, and launch out into the deep to make an impact—which is exactly what the world needs right now.”
—Marcus Petit ’09
A Building That Reflects Our Philosophy
Nowhere is our interdisciplinary approach more clearly expressed than in our new Home of the Upper School, a 105,000-square-foot space conceived for intellectual crosspollination. With both purposebuilt labs and flexible classrooms, shared commons areas, and open areas for spontaneous collaboration, the building itself invites integrative thinking and action. It encourages a spirit of connection across departments—where art, math, literature, history, and design are not separate islands but part of a dynamic ecosystem of inquiry.
Our Home of the Upper School facilitates the very kind of multidisciplinary conversations that fuel innovative thinking.
Instead of isolating subjects in silos, the architecture invites movement, interaction, and idea-sharing—whether between students and teachers, or between science and the arts, or humanities and technology. It’s a physical embodiment of our belief that the best learning happens when boundaries between disciplines become porous, allowing for real-time exploration of the complex, interconnected challenges that define the modern world.
At the 8th Grade Symposium, students present research findings after months of designing experiments, conducting surveys, and analyzing data. This capstone project challenges them to investigate issues using the scientific method, with topics ranging from lake water quality to the effects of social media on teen mental health. In 8th grade Financial Literacy, students create budgets based on sample professions, incorporating taxes, savings, and healthcare costs—building practical skills for future financial responsibility.
In American Studies—a signature 11th grade honors class that integrates History and English students present their strategy for the Civil Disobedience Project. Each group chooses a fictional scenario where social, moral, and constitutional injustice is occurring and plans a negotiation strategy drawing on what they’ve learned about history and politics.
“Our graduates move through the world with clarity, creativity, and purpose and carry with them the confidence to ask bold questions, the empathy to understand diverse perspectives, and the skills to turn ideas into meaningful contributions.”
—Giselle Furlonge, Co-Head of School
Interdisciplinary Highlight: 10th Grade Humanities Pilot
Our commitment to interdisciplinary learning takes a step forward with the Fall 2025 launch of the 10th Grade Humanities Pilot, a co-taught, co-designed course that combines English and History. In this immersive, yearlong experience—modeled in part on our long-established 11th grade honors American Studies class—students engage with literature and historical sources side by side, developing skills in critical thinking, empathy, and persuasive argument as they explore stories of human struggle, triumph, and systems across time.
The course encourages kids to understand people and cultures from periods and places far different from our current context—asking not only what happened, but why, and what it meant to those who lived it. Humanities 10 is grounded in the idea that empathy and critical inquiry go hand in hand. It invites students to grapple with the complexities of different cultures, ideologies, and
identities, encouraging them to ask, What was it like to live in this time? What forces shaped these people’s choices? What can we learn from their experiences?
Students who are curious about human experiences and open to diverse perspectives will find themselves at home in this class. Those who enjoy discussion and personal reflection will also thrive here. It’s a class where both peer dialogue and internal exploration are central to learning—where ideas can be tested aloud, shaped in writing, and connected to the student’s own sense of purpose in the world.
By fusing literary analysis with historical inquiry, the Humanities Pilot fosters deeper learning. A novel might illuminate the psychological impact of colonialism; a primary source might raise ethical questions about leadership or revolution. In this integrated format, students see that no discipline exists in a vacuum and that their learning has both ethical and practical dimensions.
Interdisciplinary Highlight: Foundations in Computational Thinking: AI and Ethics
In a world increasingly shaped by technology, interdisciplinary learning becomes essential. Eight years ago, SAAS demonstrated a bold, forward-thinking vision by creating an Innovations Department and embedding Entrepreneurship & Design, Computational Thinking, and Financial Literacy into its existing graduation requirements— well ahead of the national conversation around these essential skills.
the challenges and possibilities of rapid technological change fueled by generative AI tools.
We’ve offered courses in all three areas of study, but in the 2025-2026 school year our Foundations in Computational Thinking course shifts to a new, primary focus on artificial intelligence and ethics. "Foundations in Computational Thinking: AI and Ethics" blends computer science, philosophy, ethics, sociology, and even aspects of psychology into one thought-provoking experience. This trimester-long course is designed to help students understand how AI technologies function, explore the tradeoffs and ethical implications behind their development, and ultimately, develop their own responses to
Rather than focusing solely on programming, this course opens up the black box of artificial intelligence, examining facial recognition, medical diagnostics, and large language models to unpack how these systems are built and what their societal impacts might be. Students learn key technical concepts such as training data, testing, error rates, and algorithmic tradeoffs, but always in direct conversation with the human consequences of these tools. For instance, when students examine facial recognition systems, they confront the reality that error rates can vary by demographic group, raising critical questions about fairness, representation, and who bears the cost of “acceptable” mistakes. These conversations aren’t isolated to technology— they span into ethics, history, and social justice.
The interdisciplinary nature of the course is also deeply personal. As kids explore the potential for AI to both support and hinder
learning, they’re also invited to reflect on their own habits, values, and aspirations. What does it mean to use AI as a tool versus a crutch? How do we preserve and develop human skills in an age of automation? And how might students advocate for or against certain uses of AI in their schools and future workplaces? These questions aren’t just academic in nature, they are fundamentally human ones.
By integrating demonstration programming projects with discussion-based inquiry, "Foundations in Computational Thinking: AI and Ethics" helps students build computational literacy, as well as ethical fluency and a stronger interdisciplinary mindset. Whether they’re exploring the logic behind how a game-playing AI learns strategy or analyzing the long-term societal implications of generative technologies, students are constantly engaging across fields. The result is a more meaningful understanding of AI, not only as a technical marvel, but as a profoundly human force shaping the world they are inheriting.
In SAAS’s Upper School Entomology class, students learn to identify insects, complete extensive fieldwork, and prepare a pinned collection of found insects. At the end of the trimester, science teachers prepare a multicourse “meal” made of insects, featuring everything from moth dropping tea to a cricket-flour brownie.
Honors Advanced Chemistry students take on a design challenge: constructing a food calorimeter to capture and measure stored energy as they burn a cheese puff. Other creative lesson plans in Upper School chemistry classes have involved exploding pumpkins, etching medallions, and making candy canes, all to demonstrate the energy held in chemical bonds.
12th grade Physics students investigate the science behind designing a shoe. Using tools like a spring scale and force plate, they measure four qualities: traction, stability, mass, and cushioning. Then they use their findings to sketch shoe prototypes designed to meet the needs of different customers such as dancers or athletes.
Interdisciplinary Highlight: Math and Meaning
In our classrooms, even traditionally compartmentalized subjects are being reframed as portals for students to understand the world in richer ways.
Math, often seen as separate and rigid, is being reimagined as a creative, connected discipline.
Incoming Math Department Chair, Teddy Carpenter, shares her philosophy of math instruction: “It’s really important for students to understand that math is not just a construct, which they’ve potentially been led to believe. Humans don’t exist separately from math. Math is actually a collection of patterns that allow us, humans, to make sense of the world around us. It allows people to quantify phenomena and make predictions.” At SAAS, even algebra teaches creative problem-solving, offering students the chance to reframe challenges in flexible ways—an empowering mindset that echoes far beyond the classroom.
We want students to immerse themselves in math’s deeper relevance to their lives and discover new ways to engage with the patterns and possibilities all around them. Math is not merely a technical skill—it’s a form of expression, a way of seeing, a language that helps decode complexity and solve problems.
And just as literature can offer a lens into history or identity, mathematics can reveal the elegant structure behind natural systems, economies, and social trends. It empowers students to act with precision and creativity in a world defined by both data and uncertainty.
Upper School math teacher Amanda Ayling often ventures off campus with her students to explore how geometry shows up in the neighborhood. On the left, students take measurements in order to calculate the volume of a streetlight bolt. “These tasks ask students to think independently about hands-on problems, model solutions using what they know, make and communicate simplifying assumptions, and consider accuracy,” says Amanda.
“Learning at SAAS is interdisciplinary, because living in the world is interdisciplinary. I’m not preparing kids in an English classroom to be English majors. I’m helping kids learn skills that are essential for 21st century living and fulfillment. Not every kid sees the relevance of writing an essay, but every kid needs to be a communicator who can verbalize ideas. Students who learn relevant, applicable, and transferable skills and content come to see that ideas and skills are connected.”
—Alison Ray, Dean of Teaching and Learning
In a 12th grade English elective called “Creative Quest: The Philosophy of Creativity and How Not to Be Bored,” students collaborate to create visual summaries of their recent reading from Rick Rubin’s book The Creative Act: A Way of Being.
Our interdisciplinary approach is a whole-hearted commitment to provide an education that is relevant. It affirms our belief that students are not preparing only for standardized tests, or college alone. They are currently living and preparing to lead lives of purpose in a world that demands agility and courageous thinking.
This vision comes to life in the 10th grade Humanities pilot, in courses like "Foundations in Computational Thinking: AI and Ethics," and in the way we’re reimagining math as a creative, human-centered discipline. These classes aren’t isolated innovations; they are nodes in a growing network of academic opportunities rooted in decades of interdisciplinary experimentation at SAAS. Our mission calls us to develop students who can question deeply, imagine boldly, create thoughtfully, and contribute meaningfully and they need robust tools to do just that.
our new building becomes more than a space. It’s a launchpad for interdisciplinary exploration and discovery.
We envision new classes where science and design intersect, where visual arts and data analysis illuminate each other, where technology and ethics continue to be probed in tandem. As our faculty continue to collaborate across disciplines, we anticipate a ripple effect throughout the school—more opportunities for thematic units, joint projects, and crossdepartmental inquiry will follow.
In a world that doesn’t stand still, we are committed to teaching that reflects and prepares students for constant evolution. Interdisciplinary education at SAAS is a reflection of the world as it is and the world we want our students to impact.
In our new building, these interdisciplinary connections and tools will continue to expand. We see a future filled with collaborative courses where science meets storytelling, where ethics shapes engineering, and where students move fluidly across disciplines to pursue questions that matter. As our faculty continue to weave connections across subjects,
Our graduates move through the world with clarity, creativity, and purpose and carry with them the confidence to ask bold questions, the empathy to understand diverse perspectives, and the skills to turn ideas into meaningful contributions. When our kids cross the stage at graduation they are equipped not only to navigate change but to shape it.
After analyzing several articles to collect evidence and build their case, 7th graders in history class debate the role of women in World War I, defending their pre-assigned positions and supporting or refuting classmates’ claims. The activity pushes students to practice public speaking, argumentation, and active listening, says history and rhetoric teacher Jessica Urbasik.
SAAS SPOTLIGHTS
IN THE ARTS: Block Party gets a little sibling
Near the end of every trimester, Music Production students transform a commons area on campus into a highenergy, high-production concert. Showcasing their newfound skills in songwriting, recording, mixing, and beat production, they perform original tunes on a portable stage as an excited audience of friends, classmates, and teachers hoot and holler. The pop-up concert is a popular SAAS tradition: Block Party.
This spring, the triannual gathering, which was once just for Upper School students, expanded. At our first-ever Lil Block Party, Middle Schoolers showed off their musical masterpieces. Like the Upper School Block Parties, the event featured original songs written, produced, and performed by Cardinals using professional equipment.
The idea for a Middle School-level show had been floating around for a few years, and this year’s cohort of student-musicians was eager to make it happen. The energy in the STREAM building during the show spoke volumes about students' motivation and enthusiasm.
Next year, both Middle and Upper School Block Parties will not only continue but rise to the next level—thanks to our new Home of the Upper School building, with Music Production rooms that open straight into the courtyard.
This year marked our exciting debut in the storied Metro League, a decades-old Washington athletic conference. And what a first year it was! Competing against some of the top programs in the region, SAAS student-athletes embraced the increased level of play, rising to the challenge with grit, growth, and heart. We saw packed sidelines, high-stakes games, and new rivalries form, all while keeping participation and excellence at the center. One of the most exciting outcomes: SAAS Volleyball will move to the league’s top division next fall, an impressive feat in year one. Across all seasons, our teams made history, from numerous State placements and school records to all-conference awards and our first-ever Metro titles. Plus, two brand-new sports hit the ground running, with impressive student leadership and year-one wins: Girls Flag Football and Boys Baseball.
Our Middle School program remains a cornerstone of inclusive participation and joyful growth. With a no-cut policy and over 75% of students involved in at least one sport, Middle School Athletics gives students the chance to try something new and build confidence, all while connecting through play. The emphasis on development, teamwork, and fun sets the stage for future athletic success, and more importantly, a lifelong appreciation for movement and community.
Looking at the numbers from this year, it’s clear: Cardinal Athletics is thriving. And we’re just getting started.
Go Cardinals!
CARDINAL atHletiCS BY THE NUMBERS
1 year completed in the Metro League 830 student-athletes participated in sports 73 teams were available to students across the Middle and Upper Schools
26 student-athletes won All-Conference honors
13 graduatINg seniors will go on to play their sport at the college level
15 school records were set
4 teams plus 22 INdividuals qualified for State competitions in Washington 3 teams earned Academic State Champs for their high GPAs
2024-2025 HIGHLIGHTS, BY THE SeaSON Fall
During our first-ever athletic season in the Metro League, the Girls Cross Country team placed 10th in State. On the boys’ side, Ramsey Mesiwala ’26 also qualified for the State Meet.
Meanwhile, in Boys Golf, Rylan Galante ’26 competed in the State Tournament, and the team studied hard to earn the title of State Academic Champions—as did the Girls Volleyball team! Plus, in volleyball, Vivian Siebrecht ’25 was named Metro Co-Defensive Player of the Year.
WINtER
It was a big year for our wrestling teams: eight boys qualified for the State Tournament, and Charlie Kelman ’25 became the first male wrestler in school history to win a match at State. Meanwhile, on the girls side, Saniyah McKinney ’26 qualified for the State Tournament, and became the first SAAS athlete to win a Metro Championship.
In other State news: our Competitive Dance Team qualified in both the Hip Hop and Dance categories.
Crushing it on the basketball court, Makaila Johnson ’25 was named Metro Conference Sound League’s Most Valuable Player and broke the school record for career rebounds (867).
Last but definitely not least, a new club sport launched: Girls Flag Football! With over 60 athletes participating, the team won the Division 2 Championship Bracket and gave many Cardinals the chance to try something they’d never done before. We are excited for the team to develop further next year as the WIAA has officially added Flag Football as a varsity sport.
“Joining flag football helped me embrace the SAAS experience of trying new things,” a big part of the school culture, says Addison Bay ’25. The team brought together “a bunch of athletes from different sports and even people who don’t normally play sports. It was a great bonding experience to learn something that we’ve never done before.”
“The first few weeks of flag football were a learning curve for everyone, and I think that brought us closer as a group. I ended up becoming quarterback; a big part of that is being able to communicate in a calm, concise way, relaying information quickly, and having good connections with teammates. We gained a level of trust from that.”
– Joelle Vedovatti ’25
SprINg
Track & Field athletes made their mark in the Metro League at lighting speed! 10 Cardinals qualified for the State Meet, and three placed: Dionysus So-Gilmore ’26 (4th in the 400m and 7th in the 200m), Amara Pallari ’26 (5th in pole vault), and Maxine Connell ’27 (8th in the 400m).
Dio and Amara became the first male and female SAAS athletes to place at a 3A State competition, and Jalani Clemmons ’25 (who qualified for State in long jump and triple jump) became the first male Metro Champion across any sport. On top of that, eight school records were set in Track & Field.
Both the Boys and Girls Lacrosse teams qualified for State this year. In Girls Tennis, Maxine Liao ’26 qualified for State and the team became State Academic Champions.
Finally, our inaugural Boys Baseball team hit it out of the park, finishing third in the Metro Sound Division during their first season. Among other individual accomplishments, team co-captain Eli Herst ’26 was named Metro Pitcher of the Year! Read about how student leaders took initiative to launch the team and lay its strong foundation on page 56.
LookINg Ahead
In addition to the two new sports that launched this year, four more are on their way. SAAS studentathletes can look forward to Fastpitch (beginning in the spring of 2026), pickleball club (fall of 2025), sideline cheer club (winter of 2025), and swimming (expected to start during the 2026–2027 school year).
Why and how does Cardinal Athletics keep growing? It’s all based on student interest.
“If students here at SAAS have an interest in something, we’re going to explore whether we can make it happen,” says Shavette McGhee, Assistant Head of School for Student Experience.
Pitch IN g TH eir Plan
How student leaders helped launch our inaugural Baseball team
Almost immediately after SAAS announced our inaugural Boys Baseball team would launch in spring of 2025, a group of Upper School boys showed up in Assistant Athletic Director Max Bayern’s office. It was six months out from the season’s start, but these future team members wanted to introduce themselves to their future head coach—and plan how to shape their team-to-be into the strongest, most successful force possible.
The upperclassmen leaders, including Eli Herst ’26 and Liam Mahoney ’25, who later became the program’s first team captains, brought “extremely high energy from day one,” Max recalls. They’d already advocated for the team’s creation, with support from faculty, and now they were wasting no time bringing their vision to life: establishing the team’s values, organizing pre-season group workouts, and planning how to optimize practice time.
The students’ initiative laid a foundation for the 2025 season and many to follow. It established a program culture of resilience and selflessness, leading to a successful first season.
“Ten years down the line, I want SAAS to be a baseball powerhouse, and that all started this year with us,” says Eli, a team co-captain and rising senior who’s already committed to playing baseball at Vanderbilt University. “We’re building the right culture and team work ethic that will get passed down through generations of players.”
SAAS Baseball had a standout debut season, finishing third in the Metro Sound Conference. Eli Herst '26 was named Metro Pitcher of the Year, and three teammates—Liam Mahoney '25, Dashiell Story '26, and William Hendry '27—also earned AllMetro honors.
“Year one of SAAS baseball has been nothing short of amazing. It was an outstanding experience to collaborate with our student-athletes, coaches, and SAAS community. This inaugural team built the foundation and excitement for future Cardinal baseball players.”
– Max Bayern, Baseball Coach, Assistant Athletic Director
Innovating the Future
With the opening of the Home of the Upper School this fall, our Innovations department ushers in a new era—and a fleet of new opportunities for SAAS students.
By Tyler Hartanov, Innovations Department Chair
At SAAS, we prioritize helping students stretch themselves— intellectually, creatively, and personally. Core to this is our Innovations department, with 28 diverse classes across our Middle and Upper Schools focusing on three key areas: Financial Literacy, Computational Thinking, and Entrepreneurship and Design. In every Innovations course, our students are invited to take risks, try something new, and challenge themselves in a supportive, highly collaborative environment. Our goal is to help students see themselves not just as learners, but as designers, builders, and problemsolvers. In short, we’re equipping students with a range of intellectual and practical skills so they can thrive in what’s next.
This fall, we open the doors to over 9,000 square feet of brandnew, purpose-built Innovations spaces in our new Home of the Upper School. With dedicated studios for wood, metal, and digital fabrication—including large-capacity laser cutters, a CNC machine, and full-scale metal and wood fabrication tools—students won’t be limited to theoretical designs. They’ll be building, testing, iterating, and creating the work they envision.
What excites me most is that these spaces will challenge students to navigate the design thinking process in powerful new ways. They’ll take risks, solve problems, and develop not only technical skills, but also the confidence to bring their ideas to life. For class assignments, they’ll face challenges that mirror the kinds of opportunities and decisions students will face beyond SAAS.
In all Innovations classes, students learn to navigate ambiguity, give and receive feedback, and move through failure toward better solutions. They practice empathy by designing for real people and real needs. They collaborate across disciplines. And they begin to see themselves as active contributors to the world around them. That’s why Innovations is a cornerstone of a SAAS education. It reflects and reinforces our mission: to inspire curious and compassionate thinkers. It brings to life our guiding principles by giving students the tools and trust to explore who they are, what they care about, and what they can do.
With our new building and expanded programming, we’re not just upgrading our spaces. We’re investing in our students’ ability to shape their futures. And we can’t wait to see what they build next.
“Through Innovations, students gain the skills they need to approach complex problems with curiosity and creativity. Not every student will pursue a career in fabrication or design—but all will carry the lessons of building, collaborating, and solving real problems with them. They’ll remember what it felt like to take risks, create something meaningful, and know that their ideas matter.”
—Tyler Hartanov, Innovations Department Chair
7th grade Innovations students drew on their design skills and creativity in this “Back to the Future” project. First, they researched ancient inventions from Greece, India, Egypt, or China, such as a water wheel, catapult, and lyre, “developing empathy by learning who the user was” and how they used the tool in their daily life, says teacher Jason Vasquez. Then, they figured out ways to improve the design with modern technology. One student’s lighthouse design, for example, uses generative AI to identify the size and capacity of an incoming ship. “Through both processes, students learn to provide and implement actionable feedback from their peers,” says Jason.
“At SAAS, we have a vision of the future where all students feel confident navigating the unknown. That confidence doesn’t come from knowing all the answers—it comes from having the tools, mindset, and experience to figure things out.”
—Tyler Hartanov, Innovations Department Chair
What’s Next: New Courses and New Tools
Fall 2025 marks a major expansion of what’s possible in the Innovations department—not just because of the new spaces, but because of the exciting new courses we’re launching and the enhanced experiences we’re offering across the board, thanks to the expanded access to fabrication tools, collaborative studio space, and creative project possibilities. Check out some of our brand-new offerings.
Foundations in Design Thinking
All students in 9th or 10th grades will take a required Innovations course that introduces them to the full range of Entrepreneurship and Design classes at SAAS. Students will build skills in the woodshop, dive into digital fabrication, and learn how to safely and confidently use the tools available to them. They will also learn how to apply the design thinking process in multiple environments, setting the stage for deeper, more specialized projects down the road.
Metal Fabrication and Design
Offered in a state-of-the-art metal shop, this dynamic course introduces students to a variety of metal fabrication techniques, including welding, cutting, shaping, and finishing. Students will learn to design and create their own projects with tools like plasma cutters and MIG welders, focusing on safety, creativity, and skill development.
Architectural Design
Extending beyond traditional building design, this class fosters a broader understanding of architecture’s potential to impact people’s lives. Students will research and design architecture solutions to community challenges, sketch ideas, plan spaces, and select materials while mastering 2D drafting and 3D modeling techniques. They’ll gain knowledge of design principles, the iterative process, and the art of translating ideas into tangible solutions.
Introduction to Woodworking and Design
In our expanded shop space, students will learn the fundamentals of working with wood, including understanding different types of lumber and mastering essential tools and techniques. As they work on functional, meaningful projects, they’ll engage with every step of the process, from drafting initial concepts to applying final finishes.
Prototyping with CAD and 3D Printing
Building on the skills learned in Foundations of Design Thinking, students will take their prototyping skills to the next level by learning to use CAD (ComputerAided Design) software. Projects focus on prototyping objects that SAAS students can use, drawing on multiple engineering techniques to design them and using 3D printers and laser cutters to bring them to life. Students interested in engineering, product design, or architecture will benefit from the skills taught in this new course.
ALUMNI IN ACTION
Della Smith ’23 is a seven-year veteran of SAAS Robotics, and now an engineering student at the University of Southern California.
Looking back, what first drew you to robotics at Seattle Academy?
SAAS’s Middle School had multiple teams, and the Upper School team was nationally ranked at the time, which was super cool. That kind of setup wasn’t common in Seattle schools, so we were really drawn to it.
What kept me engaged over the years was that there was always something new to try. In Middle School, we had different teams within the Lego robotics group, and then in 8th grade, I was invited to join the high school’s underwater robotics team. One senior on that team taught me how to use SolidWorks, an industry-level 3D modeling software. I didn’t realize how rare it was to be learning that so early. Even now in college, I’ve met people who are just starting to learn it.
Were there any moments that stand out as especially formative?
Definitely the competitions. They were a culmination of all our hard work, and it felt similar to a sports tournament. You’d be there all weekend working with your team, solving problems together. That sense of shared purpose was really meaningful.
Another big one was in my senior year, when I did an Independent Study with Robotics Program Director Gerald Elliott and Science Department Chair Peter Clark. I studied water quality in Lake Washington, and it combined my experience with underwater robotics and my interest in biology, which started when I took Peter’s honors bio class. They encouraged me to design the project however I wanted, and I got to write a research paper, which was a pretty big deal for a high schooler. That project was very similar to what I’ve ended up doing in college.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in robotics, and how did working through it prepare you for college-level engineering?
I think the biggest challenge was learning how to work with all different kinds of people. I took on a leadership role as a sophomore and I had to figure out how others learn, how they communicate, and how to support them. It really taught me about leadership—not just giving directions but learning how to bring a group together.
My senior year, I was the Engineering Manager, which meant leading all the sub-teams. That gave me a real introduction to logistics: how different groups work together and how to make things more efficient.
The peer-to-peer learning was huge. Each sub-team had a lead and they taught new members. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was such a valuable experience— learning from your peers. That’s something I still do now. I’m always talking to upperclassmen in my major to get advice on classes or internships. That skill of seeking out knowledge from others is something SAAS really taught me.
How do you think SAAS prepared you for life?
Definitely the interdisciplinary approach. At SAAS, there’s this expectation that you engage with both STEM and the arts, and that really shaped how I think. I was always in visual arts classes, and I found ways to tie that into my other projects. Even for my Independent Study, I made a final video to visually tell the story of what I’d done. That kind of communication—how you present your work so others understand it—is something I still use now, and it started in those visual arts classes.
If you’ve developed both a creative and technical lens, you’re better equipped to solve problems. Someone with just an engineering background might see a problem one way, but someone with both perspectives can approach it from multiple angles. That’s a huge advantage.
What’s next for you?
I want to combine engineering with creativity—using my technical background to approach new challenges in new ways. My major is Industrial and Systems Engineering, which is focused on operations, logistics, and efficiency. I’m interested in project management, but I’m also really drawn to manufacturing— especially how it can be automated. Tesla’s a great example: highly localized, hightech production. I think there’s huge potential in using robotics to bring ethical, local production to fields like clothing and fashion.
What advice would you give to current SAAS students who are thinking about joining robotics?
Just try it. Don’t let being new or not knowing anything stop you. So many people are intimidated because they think they’re too late or not “technical” enough. But the whole point is to learn— there are people there whose job is literally to teach you how to use tools, code, or build. And beyond the technical skills, you’ll learn how to collaborate, lead, and think critically.
Anything else you want to add?
Just that mentorship at SAAS works on two levels: from teachers and from students. That second part—students mentoring students—is something I really value. Being in that kind of environment gave me the confidence to lead and to teach others, which wasn’t something I expected to get in high school. I’m really grateful for that.
Mentorship is in the DNA of SAAS Robotics. Robotics Program Director Gerald Elliott reflects on 12 years growing the program and the many students, colleagues, alumni, parents, and community volunteers that have helped shape it into Seattle’s preeminent robotics program.
Gerald Elliott, Robotics Program Director, began learning machining and metalworking in high school while working in the UW Oceanography Department’s Developmental Machine Shop, run by his father. That foundation led him to building underwater robots and eventually mentoring at SAAS— where he now leads the Robotics Program. “It has been an honor to be able to pass on lessons and secrets of the trade to the next generation,” he reflects.
SAAS ROBOTICS BY THE NUMBERS 200+
Number of students who participated in robotics in the 20242025 school year
20
Number of Upper School students supporting the Middle School team
27
Number of adult robotics mentors, including SAAS faculty, current parents, alumni parents, alumni, and industry experts
12
Number of robotics offerings across Middle and Upper School, from underwater robotics to aviation
7
Number of world championships SAAS teams have competed in, across three different robotics leagues
2
Number of engineering awards our SAASquatch team brought home at the 2025 FIRST Robotics Competition: the Creativity Award and the Quality Award
When I started working at Seattle Academy in 2013, the school had just twenty kids participating in our Robotics Program. Fast forward to today, and our Robotics Program is one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest, with more than 200 students participating annually, multiple championship wins, and 12 different offerings in half a dozen leagues across our Middle and Upper School. In the 2024-2025 school year alone, we had opportunities in rocketry, remote control (RC) airplanes, battle bots, underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), FIRST Robotics, coding classes, and custom RC cars.
What helped us get here is not only SAAS’s investment in our Robotics Program. We have also continued to find success because of our program mentors. Nearly 30 robotics mentors, ranging from faculty, staff, and administrators to alumni, parents, and community volunteers, supervise and teach our students technical and engineering skills. Additionally, close to 20 Upper School students worked with our Middle Schoolers this past year.
Walking around a combat, underwater, or rocketry after-school practice session, you’ll see adults supervising and mentoring— including my Innovations department colleagues and eight current parents and alumni parents. You’ll also meet community volunteers dedicated to the mission of technical education, who have reached out to me wanting to give back. Kathy Hu works at the nuclear innovation company TerraPower. As a student in Oregon, she participated in FRC Robotics. When she moved to Seattle, she wanted to volunteer and reached out to her neighborhood program: SAASquatch! Zach Larson, another FRC alumnus, signed up to support our design and fabrication teams this year, and does so on top of working at Boeing.
You’ll also see many high school students helping younger students refine their engineering and building skills. This type of student-to-student education is valuable because it allows us to reach more students—and build more robots! But equally importantly, it builds a bridge socially and helps our older students grow their leadership skills. Knowing how to wire, code, or design in CAD is one thing, but teaching it requires social proficiencies. Every year, we build many robots, but I am equally proud of the young leaders our program builds alongside the bots.
Another key mentor is Larry Ryan. His daughter, Paige, graduated from SAAS in 2010 and went on to Stanford before working on Ford’s autonomous vehicle program. Larry was an electrical engineer at NASA and HP, and his father was a telegrapher for Western Union. His family history parallels the history of modern electrical engineering, and he’s helped bring that expertise directly to SAAS students. When I launched our Advanced Engineering class this year with Innovations faculty member Spencer Laube ’15— himself a SAAS Robotics alumnus and one of our most dedicated mentors—Larry stepped in to assist with the electrical engineering elements of the final project: designing and building a scientific research float.
Robots are fantastically complex, and building one well takes more than just technical know-how—it takes teamwork, communication, and resilience. At every grade level, SAAS Robotics students learn four core engineering skills: electronics, coding, fabrication, and design. A 6th grader building their first mini battle bot is developing the same foundational abilities as a senior in Advanced Engineering. Even for students who don’t become engineers, these skills—learning to measure precisely, iterate through failure, and think creatively with technology—prepare them for a world shaped by automation, AI, and innovation. Our students are not just building robots; they’re learning how to navigate ambiguity and contribute to fields that don’t yet exist.
With the opening of the Home of the Upper School this fall, SAAS will double its daytime engineering offerings and dramatically expand after-school opportunities in robotics. New spaces—including a state-of-the-art metal shop, wood shop, clean tech shop, welding courtyard, and multiple Innovations classrooms—will give students more ways to push the boundaries of what they can build. We’ll keep teaching mechanical, electrical, and software engineering. We’ll keep welcoming students who are actors, writers, and artists, too, because we believe technical literacy strengthens every kind of thinker. Our program continues to evolve, shaped by mentors and students alike. And that’s exactly the spirit of robotics: embracing change, solving problems together, and having a whole lot of fun along the way.
ROBOTICS AT SAAS
Students participating in Seattle Academy’s Robotics Program design, build, and program robots while developing problem-solving, teamwork, and engineering skills. With 12 offerings across six leagues, the program supports curious learners through a range of experiences in coding, design, and competition. We offer robotics opportunities across four main categories.
FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team –
SAASquatch: Design, build, and program large-scale robots to compete in dynamic, team-based challenges.
Combat Robotics: Engineer and battle custom-built robots in head-to-head tournaments that test durability and design.
Underwater Robotics: Create remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to take on a series of underwater tasks in regional and national competitions.
Aviation Robotics: Develop autonomous aerial vehicles for flight-based challenges that combine coding, design, and precision.
“One thing robotics is really good at teaching, early and often, is that failure is not only a natural occurrence of innovation, it’s necessary. If you’re not afraid to fail, you’re never afraid to try. By doing ambitious things—like building a 120-pound robot in two months— you’re going to experience a lot of failure, but there’s a lot of success and resiliency to be found in that process.”
Each spring, SAAS 8th graders embark on the Seattle Challenge, a signature three-day experience designed to deepen their understanding of community, identity, and service. In small groups, students navigate the city, often relying on public transportation and their own collaborative skills, to visit and volunteer with a wide range of organizations that support people on the margins in our city—those who may be experiencing poverty, homelessness, or food insecurity, and the elderly.
These moments of service are paired with structured time for reflection and dialogue, encouraging students to think critically and empathetically about the stories and social systems they encounter. The experience isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about asking meaningful questions: How do others live in our city? What challenges do they face? Who is doing the work to help? How can I contribute?
With curiosity as their guide, students are invited to approach each day with openness and flexibility, developing the confidence to navigate unfamiliar situations and the humility to learn from them. Moments of activity are balanced with downtime as students journal, share a meal in a park, converse on public transit, and walk together through new neighborhoods.
Seattle Challenge is more than a field trip. It’s a formative experience that builds civic agility, fosters collaboration, and nurtures a growing awareness of how individuals can engage meaningfully in their communities. Whether it inspires students to volunteer again, walk through the city with new eyes, or recognize their own capacity to make a difference, the impact of Seattle Challenge lasts long after the three days come to an end.
Seattle Challenge by the Numbers
In March 2025, 8th graders…
Volunteered at 42 different agencies around Seattle
Set a Ballard Food Bank record by putting together 2,100 food bags
Made 250 personal care bags for Plymouth Housing
Bagged 650 pounds of rice and beans for Jewish Family Service
Made rabbit fences and planted seedlings, served food, sung karaoke with senior citizens, and much more!
On Learning
The Job
Every May, our 12th graders step beyond the classroom for their Senior Project—a month-long internship that builds on the entrepreneurial mindset they’ve been developing throughout their time at SAAS. We connected with a crew of seniors at their project sites—as well as program coordinator Rachel Leavitt-Baron ’08—to learn more about the meaning and impact of this signature experience.
The Senior Project is a capstone experience at Seattle Academy.
During the final month of senior year, students step out of the classroom and into the professional world—working as interns in labs, classrooms, art studios, and offices and gaining experience and insight into careers and causes they care about.
What started back in 2004 as a small, optional program has grown into a much-anticipated rite of passage for the senior class. This year, 181 students worked at 104 different sites across the Seattle area, from the UW Applied Physics Lab to Microsoft to an immigration law firm. Along the way, students sharpen their résumés, practice interviewing, and learn how to show up in professional spaces— all while chasing something they’re curious about. Sometimes it confirms a future path; sometimes it rules one out. Either way, it sticks with them.
Given the lasting impact, it’s fitting that one of our own— SAAS alum Rachel Leavitt-Baron ’08—now leads the program as our Community Action Program Coordinator. “I remember how it felt to wear a hospital badge during my own Senior Project at Seattle Children’s Hospital,” she recalls. “I felt like I belonged. Even though I didn’t go into medicine, that experience taught me how to advocate for myself and carry myself in professional spaces.” Now, she brings that same spirit to helping current students navigate their own
Senior Projects. We sat down with Rachel to hear more about what this program means to her—and what it offers SAAS seniors today.
What’s the deeper value of Senior Projects—and why do they matter so much at SAAS?
I think it’s really about showing up in the world. You’re stepping out of school and into a space where you’re not treated like a kid, and that’s really powerful. You’re being asked to participate, to contribute, to be part of a team. Sometimes students discover, “Oh wow, I’m capable of so much more than I thought.” And sometimes they realize, “This isn’t what I want to do,” and that’s just as important. The whole experience helps students figure out not just what they want to do, but who they want to be.
What do you love about the program?
I love that it gives students the chance to explore something they’re curious about. There’s something so powerful about showing up every day, building relationships with adults, and doing work that matters outside of a school context. I also just love hearing about the wide range of things students are interested in. Every year I learn about new corners of the world because of what they choose to explore.
What do you remember about your own Senior Project?
I was at Seattle Children’s Hospital in their Family Resource Center. I remember feeling so grown up walking in with my badge every day. I had this sense of, “I can carry myself in a professional environment—I know how to interact with adults.” That confidence stuck with me.
How has the program evolved over time?
When I did my project, it wasn’t required—maybe only a quarter of the class participated. Now it’s a full-grade experience, which means we’ve had to build out more support systems to help everyone find a meaningful placement. We do a lot more coaching now: résumé workshops, mock interviews, helping students write emails, practicing how to introduce themselves. It’s really about giving them the tools to advocate for themselves.
What’s one thing you hope every student takes away from the experience?
I hope they realize that they’re capable of showing up in the world as full humans—not just students. That they can enter a new space, ask good questions, offer something of value, and learn in a different way. I hope it makes them feel excited and more prepared for whatever comes next.
Stories From Senior Project Night
In late May, capping off their four-week internships, 181 seniors participated in Senior Project Night, returning to campus to present to family and friends what they learned during their time on the job. Drawing on placements ranging from research labs and hospitals to design studios and elementary schools, students reflected on their work, shared key takeaways, and spoke about how the project shaped their thinking about life after high school.
LOCATION:
UW Cossairt Lab
STUDENTS: Oliver Connell, Myles Tade
SUPERVISORS: Emily Miura-Stempel and Reed Worland, PhD Students
PROJECT FOCUS:
Nanoparticle synthesis and data analysis
LOCATION: Seattle Children’s Hospital
STUDENT: Olivia Griffin-Williams
SUPERVISOR: Dr. Yolanda N. Evans, Division Head, Adolescent Medicine
“I was floored by Olivia’s professionalism and her fresh, creative ideas. I thought, whoa, she’s going to change the world.”
—Dr. Yolanda N. Evans
PROJECT FOCUS: Research and data visualization for Seattle Children’s Eating Disorders Recovery Program
“I think I understand more about what I want to do in the future. It’s easy to sit in classes and be like, I want to be a doctor, I want to be a model. But it’s hard to know what you actually like and how you want to spend your time until you’re actually in that environment doing it every day. It gives me a lot more perspective on what I want my next internship or job to be like. It’s been the best three weeks of my year.”
—Molly Eamer ’25
LOCATION: Heffner Management
STUDENTS: Molly Eamer and Shanti Shendure
SUPERVISORS: Nancy Peppler, President/Owner, Alicia Best, Booking Agent, and Alexandria Foot, Art Department
PROJECT FOCUS: Database management, client relations, model scouting, social media engagement
LOCATION: BNBuilders
STUDENTS: Oscar Cashman, Milo Choe, Madeline Gerding, Dylan Jeffries
SUPERVISOR: Jason Monahan, Senior Project Engineer
PROJECT FOCUS:
Construction management and engineering
“Seeing the progress of the new building and everything that goes into it has been really interesting. I’m going into construction management at UW next year, so this has been a great way to start getting real experience in the workforce.”
—Oscar Cashman ’25
“Kyle hit the ground running and started asking really good questions—like, why do we do things this way? He’s analytical and thorough, and that perspective has made us stop and think about our own process in a new way.”
“We’re making connections with people in industries we’re really interested in. And it’s a job—it’s good to have a job.”
—True Echohawk-Hayashi ’25
“I
feel like it’s opened my eyes to other aspects of the fashion industry. Usually when you’re buying a shirt you don’t think about all the people and all the hard work and quality control that goes into it. This work made me more aware of different aspects in the fashion industry.”
“I’ve liked putting my own spin on the Buoy mascot and getting to see how art can be incorporated into a business, since that’s the world I’ll be entering. Seeing how the design and feedback process works in a largerscale company has been a good thing.”
—Frankee Atchison ’25
LOCATION: Seattle Kraken
STUDENT: Frankee Atchison
SUPERVISOR: Philip Patterson, Designer
PROJECT FOCUS:
Graphic design, illustration, brand work
LOCATION: University Child Development School (UCDS)
STUDENTS: Nabih Farhat, Chloe Garris, Makalia Johnson, Julia Prieto
SUPERVISORS: Jessica Garrick, Specialist Division Head & Art Specialist; Deb Chickadel, 3rd and 4th-Grade Division Head
“I’m doing a lot and learning a lot—it’s not just busy work. Being in a real office, learning how to conduct myself properly in a corporate environment, and communicating with clients has helped me build life skills. It feels good knowing I’m helping someone on their mental health journey. At this point in our lives, we’re all looking for more independence, and this gave me a chance to try something new and see what a future job could look like.”
—Mari Lavin ’25
LOCATION: Mindful Support Services
STUDENTS:
Ella Carter, Aspen Hoffman, Ahmir Huggins, Sophie Isaac, Mari Lavin, and Asta Skoglund
SUPERVISORS:
Toni Dondero, Community Partnership Manager; Poy Graves, Assistant Intake and Scheduling Manager; Brianna Nelson, Digital Marketing Manager
PROJECT FOCUS: Client intake, scheduling, community outreach
“It’s so cool learning about this—how rehab works, how to grade a strain. I want to study this in college. You can’t ask good questions without a baseline of knowledge, and having this background is going to be really helpful when I intern in other places.”
—Ellie Candell ’25
“They’ve rolled with the punches, come in eager, asked great questions, and inspired us to level up as educators. Their energy and interest reminds me how lucky I am that I get to do this cool profession every day.”
—Sarah Pfau, Director of Sports Medicine, Seattle
University
LOCATION: Seattle University Sports Medicine
STUDENTS: Ellie Candell and Jalani Clemmons
SUPERVISOR: Sarah Pfau, Director of Sports Medicine
Family Resource Center (Seattle Children’s Hospital)
Flight Club Foundation
French American School
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Frederick Films
GetGreen
Gibbs Houston Pauw
Gage Art Academy
Griffin Creek Farm
Greenlake Strength and Conditioning
Hamlin Robinson School
Heffner Management
Hoffman Gable Design
HKN Design Group
Interbay Veterinary Care Center
James Andrews Videography
Jarbo Collection
Jet City Animal Clinic/Animal Rescue
King County Archives
King County Superior Court
Kirkland Child & Family Therapy, PLLC
Krekow Jennings
L’Avant Collective
Lahai Health
LikeLihood
LMN Architects
Love City Love/Seven Hills Studio
Lumina Vascular Health + Laser Clinic
Mahlum Architects Inc.
Meany Center for the Performing Arts
Meeples Games
Mental Sports Training
Miller Hull
Mindful Therapy Group
Modern Construction Services
Morgan Stanley Nina Raizel Jewelry
Nordic Scholars Leadership Institute
Noir Lux Candle Company
North Beach Elementary
Orthopedic Specialists of Seattle
Parametric Portfolio
Paccar
PDA Pacific Northwest Chapter
Podcast with Art Thiel + Joe Doyle
Prairie Underground
Pride Center (UCDS)
Qlique (Renew) Physical Therapy
Rainier Medical Center
Rainier Prep Middle School
Rainier Scholars
RLW Inc.
Rock Solid Landscapes
Savannah State University
Shots and Sprockets
South Park Community Initiative
Soundview Elementary
Spruce Street School
SportReps NW
Sodexo Live
Sparrey Consulting
Summit Community Center
TCM Models + Talent
TerraPower
The Circle Community Navigation
The Giddens School
The Residency
The Valley School
Trombold Law
Upper Left Strategies
University Cooperative School
University of Washington Applied Physics Lab
University of Washington Athletics
University of Washington Autism Center
University of Washington Cardiology
University of Washington Center for Leadership in Athletics
University of Washington Cossairt Lab
University of Washington Kelly Lab
University of Washington Smart Center
UCDS
Video Game Construction
Viev Machining
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health
Wavely Diagnostics
Whim W’Him
YouR Career Guide
“Getting hands-on experience in a real work setting, taking on projects that actually have impact and meaning… I wish I had that in high school. It’s great prep for working with a team, learning how to communicate, how to ask questions, and how to work on a deliverable that you get feedback on and revise—all of those skills are so key for the job market.”
AND FORMER ELITE ATHLETE SARAH SMITH IS CHANGING HOW STUDENTS TRAIN—BY STARTING WITH THE MIND.
the SAAS Boys Varsity Lacrosse team headed to Genesee Playfield one April afternoon, they made an unusual stop: a classroom. There, psychology teacher Sarah Smith—also a former U.S. National Team rower led a 40-minute session indoors. She didn’t cover plays or conditioning, but something just as vital to performance: the mind. Sarah is pioneering a new kind of training at Seattle Academy, one rooted in sports psychology. Her mental training program helps student-athletes improve focus, grit, and resilience and it’s quickly becoming a hallmark of the SAAS athletics experience. “The mental side of sports is so important to athletes’ performance and happiness,” she says.
That afternoon, the classroom was filled with thoughtful reflections and inside jokes between teammates as they reviewed the mental training concepts on Sarah’s slides, from pre-game routines to positive self-talk, and discussed them in small groups. Sarah invited everyone to share their “process goal,” or the specific steps that contribute to an end goal. After a few minutes of lively chatter, players shouted out their process goals to the whole room: running a mile every day over spring break or putting their phone away an hour before bedtime to get better rest, for example. “Process goals work well when they’re really specific,” Sarah explained, encouraging students to lay out their strategy in more detail. “It’s basically creating a new habit.”
New for 2025-2026:
pSychology Course
Mental training—which is well-backed by research but not yet common in high school sports—is a unique aspect of SAAS’s athletic program, preparing students to excel in sports and beyond. Beyond the work Sarah Smith is doing with our athletics teams, Upper School students who are interested in diving deeper into the subject can sign up for a brandnew Performance Psychology class, debuting this fall.
This interdisciplinary Health and Science class will give students an in-depth look into the science of performance, from sports to arts and beyond. Topics covered include developmental psychology and behavioral psychology in the youth sports system, coaching philosophies, research, and mental training skills for optimal performance, including anxiety regulation, imagery, self-confidence, and goal-setting.
The effort to bring mental training to students developed from Sarah’s own background as a high-performance athlete, as well as her passion for teaching psychology. She rowed on the U.S. National Team, including being an alternate at the 2004 Olympics, and trained fulltime for rowing at the Pocock Rowing Center post-college, where her coach Julie McCleery encouraged athletes to think about their mindsets. Today, in addition to coaching and teaching psychology and math at SAAS, Sarah provides mental performance coaching for the University of Washington’s women’s rowing team.
Wanting to bring a mental training curriculum to both the high school and college athletes she works with, Sarah started with the girls volleyball team at SAAS. In the fall of 2023, she met with the team weekly for five weeks. After that successful pilot, SAAS Athletic Director Cathy Schick asked her to work with the wrestling, lacrosse, cross country, and golf teams, as well.
cross country, “we spent a lot of time on self-talk,” Sarah says, because athletes running long distances spend a lot of time with their own thoughts.
Research supports what many top athletes have long recognized: that mental training takes athletes to the next level. A 2023 study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found that completing three weeks of mental training (including breathing, self-talk, and imagery strategies) improved participants’ endurance while cycling. A meta-analysis shared in Sports Medicine in 2025 indicates that psychological skills training and positive psychology interventions have the potential to improve “overall wellbeing amongst elite athletes.”
For student-athletes at SAAS, sessions with Sarah are often their first exposure to mental training. But after just a season or two, some have noticed shifts for the better, both in their performance and their enjoyment of athletics.
Sarah generally offers five classroom sessions per season for each team, as well as advising coaches on best practices. This year, she additionally coached lacrosse players on the mental aspect of their sport during an on-field practice and a game. While any mental training technique can apply to any sport, she focuses on the approaches that seem most impactful for a given team. For example, she teaches baseball players to mentally reset and bring them back into the moment after a period of waiting, with cues like tapping their bat three times or repeating a phrase to themselves. For
Teo Babienko ’25, a varsity lacrosse player this spring, was at first skeptical about spending too much time on mental training, but he’s since “started to see a lot of benefits to it,” he says.
As a defensive player, after his team gets scored on, he now knows to replay the moment in his head once to learn from it and then use a physical resetting cue—tapping his toes together to bring himself back into the present. Then, he’ll play better moving forward, because “I’m not dwelling on the past during the game,” he says.
His teammates have similarly started putting mental training tools to action. “I can see people actively trying to do it in practice and games, and it’s making a difference,” he says.
Sadie Honig ’25, recruited by Colorado College to run cross country and track & field, had heard of mental training before, but didn’t understand “what it actually meant or how much of an impact it could have on performance” until attending Sarah’s sessions last school year. One of the strategies that’s been most impactful for her has been improving her self-talk.
After making her inner monologue more positive, “I began to have fun mid-race and am able to be present in enjoying my sport, which in turn has significantly helped my performances,” says Sadie.
The skills that mental training teaches don’t just apply to sports. They can optimize performance in areas from test taking and public speaking to performing on stage.
The concept of “process goals,” for example, has carried over into Sadie’s academic life. Instead of a broad goal like “getting an A in a class,” she focuses on something specific, she says, like “writing down the most interesting thing I learned each study session.”
“I have learned not to focus on the sole outcome, but to enjoy each piece of getting there,” says Sadie. “Mental training puts a huge emphasis on confidence and progressing as a person in order to progress as an athlete. I think all of the skills transfer into life outside of sport.”
Diving DeEpEr
A Sports Psychology Independent Study
Rising senior Cate Arntz '26 had already taken every psychology course offered at SAAS—but she wanted to go further. So this past spring, she worked with psychology teacher Sarah Smith to plan an Independent Study around her interest in sports psychology.
Independent Studies at SAAS allow juniors and seniors to deep dive into a specific interest that falls outside of the school’s current course offerings, often involving research, completing reports, or building a portfolio. Cate’s project introduced her to conducting original research.
She began by learning about positive psychology—the study of what makes people thrive—and then conducted a research project with her club volleyball team. Her teammates filled out a five-part questionnaire asking about their sense of belonging on the team and how happy they are with their performance. Then, they spent a few weeks journaling with a focus on positivity (the experimental group) or about their sport in general (the control group) before answering the same questions again.
Below, Cate shares more about her Independent Study and what she learned.
What inspired your Independent Study project?
In volleyball at SAAS, we did mental training with Sarah, and it was really cool. I started doing the exercises she taught us—like positive self-talk and having routines before your game—and it helped me improve more and focus while I’m playing. I went into my Independent Study just wanting to focus on sports psychology in general.
To start off, I took an online course about positive psychology. It taught me about how focusing on positivity has a really big impact. You’ll start to realize that positive stuff happens way more than you think. One part of the course covered positive journaling, so I wanted to bring that into sports.
What did you find through your research? And what did you learn from the process?
While my sample size was small and not completely representative, I noticed that the athletes who journaled positively were more focused on their team community and connection, while the athletes who journaled neutrally were more focused on their technical skills. Overall, both the journaling methods had positive outcomes that increased athletes’ feelings of belongingness and connectedness with their team.
I learned a lot about what goes into research, even on a small scale. Getting participants and conducting the experiment over a couple weeks was tricky to manage but so fun and rewarding.
“I want to study psychology in college. Through my Independent Study, I had the opportunity to build something that’s totally catered around what I want to learn about.”
– Cate Arntz ’26
SAAS SPOTLIGHTS
High School Entrepreneurs Shine at SAAS Business Competition
Thirty-five students from 11 Seattlearea high schools gathered at SAAS in March for our third annual Ready to Launch business competition. Working in small, mixed-school teams, students had just under four hours to develop and pitch a business plan focused on social entrepreneurship. The winning idea? Little Leaf Pot—an automated, kid-friendly plant pot pitched by students from SAAS and O’Dea. Judges and mentors, including local founders and investors, praised the students’ creativity, confidence, and ability to think fast under pressure. “The competition made me want to be an entrepreneur a lot more,” says Cedar Loehr ’28. For many participants, the best part wasn’t a trophy or ribbon—it was the feedback, the connections, and the energy of live collaboration.
Read more about this year’s competition
Middle School vocalists belt out Sara Bareilles’ “Brave” at an End of Tri show. Topping off the last day of the trimester with an infectious, positive energy, the celebration included over 20 student performances, from String Ensemble to Advanced Dance.
“The Culture of Performance is embedded everywhere at SAAS—in the classroom, outside the classroom, on the fields, and on the stage. And what does it do for kids? It makes SAAS kids unafraid. They are not scared to take risks, because they’ve gotten up and danced in front of the whole student body, they’ve given speeches in front of their peers, they’ve debated across the country, they’ve presented at national conferences, they’ve competed at the highest-level robotics competitions. Once you’re able to conquer that, you can conquer anything.”
—Shavette McGhee, Assistant Head of School for Student Experience
Upper School students (top left) and Middle Schoolers (bottom left) create works with clay, whether by using a pottery wheel and trimming tools or their hands. Ceramics at SAAS ranges from introductory units in core art classes to Advanced Studio Arts, where seniors create portfolios to submit to colleges.
Storyboards, sound effects, stop motion—8th graders bring together everything they’ve been learning in Visual Arts for their final projects! They create hand-animated and stop motion films using mediums of their choice, “exploring digital art making and how that fits in with traditional art making,” says Visual Arts teacher and department chair Annalise Olson '09.
In Sustainable Fashion Design—a multidisciplinary class at the intersection of SAAS’s Innovations and Visual Arts departments—students learn to needle felt three-dimensional designs. The course teaches techniques to create or preserve garments, as well as covering the business side of fashion and how the industry impacts our planet.
“The biggest takeaway I have from my time at SAAS is a level of comfortability in my own skin. There’s an expectation that you show up, contribute, and put yourself out there—whether that’s in a classroom or on stage. That wasn’t easy for me, but it was incredibly powerful.”
—Cedric Rhodes ’13
“I always knew I wanted to be a biologist, but I never realized how transferable the skills from my arts and humanities classes at SAAS would be. One of the things I always hold with me is an exercise I learned in Advanced Acting: standing on stage, letting emotions rise, and delivering a monologue from that place rather than an intellectual one. I don’t act in my career, but that taught me how to be present and put my feelings into words—an incredibly powerful skill I use every day.”
—Nina Finley ’12
Middle School band students perform "Happy" by Pharrell Williams at End of Tri, a school-wide celebration where everyone from dancers to vocalists to classical musicians present their work.
Starting with the basics in Beginning Film, Upper School students learn video camera operation, storyboarding, media literacy, and basic software for film production. These skills lay the groundwork for SAAS’s other film offerings, including Documentary, Experimental, Animation, and Advanced Film.
Gabrielle Johnson
FILM TEACHER, INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER, FREELANCE EDITOR
Professional filmmaker Gabrielle Johnson joined SAAS last year, drawing on her MFA in film from Howard University, her background in TV production, digital media, and editing, and her experience working with students through the education nonprofit City Year to lead a range of filmmaking classes in our Visual & Media Arts department.
Earlier this year, she traveled to two film conferences across the country to show and talk about her latest short film, “Living in Silence.” The piece, which works to change the narrative around HIV and AIDS, was featured at the United States Conference on HIV and AIDS and the Charlotte Black Film Festival.
Plus, Gabrielle is working as an assistant editor of an in-progress
documentary film about the Seattle Black Panthers, directed by SAAS’s very own DEIB Coordinator Rick DuPree. “That’s very important to me, the next generation, and the community of Washington,” she says, “because people know about Black Panthers in other places like Oakland, but not a lot of people know about the amazing Black Panthers within Seattle.”
On teaching at SAAS: What I love about being a film teacher at SAAS is being able to create a safe space for students, because I had that same outlet growing up. Through their films, a lot of students talk about things that are happening within their own teen communities, like how being on your phone is a distraction from having a social life and being present. In my classes, students can tell
nearly any story they want to in whatever genre—I just ask that it’s inspiring or shares a lesson.
On the connection between teaching and filmmaking: Being a teacher has elevated me as a filmmaker, because I have really honed in on the process of filmmaking—pre-production, production, and post-production.
If I’m giving my students assignments, I gotta give myself assignments!
I also share with my students the skills I learned from working in film. I’m always talking about “communicate, communicate, communicate,” which is what I learned while working as a production assistant on TV shows and the documentary “Fauci.”
Theater at SAAS encompasses the critical work that happens on and off stage, before and during the production, from running the lights and designing costumes to stepping into the spotlight. Below, in performing arts teacher Michael Cimino’s Mask class, students create personalized masks and then explore physical acting while wearing them. On the left: students perform in two of this year’s seven school productions: “Tough City, Prone to Rain” and “Alice in Wonderland Jr.”
Students in Vocal Ensemble—one of 13 music courses in the Upper School—perform at their spring concert (below). Those taking Sculpture (left) learn to safely use shop tools so they can dive into three main art-making techniques: reduction (carving), fabrication (assembling materials), and casting (using molds and poured liquids).
“Back in my sophomore year, I was playing lacrosse, and I was simultaneously in a course that I never expected to find myself in: Intermediate Vocal. I remember distinctly going straight from a practice in pouring-down rain, taking a towel to the hair on the drive back to school, and jumping on stage to perform a song in front of an audience. It forced me beyond my comfort zone in a way that I truly can’t articulate. Performing on stage is not my happy place, but it gave me so much confidence to approach challenges later in life, knowing that I could stand in front of an audience, be vulnerable, and come out the other side feeling positive and successful.”
—Caldwell Rohrbach ’08, Innovations Department Faculty
Students perform rising senior Sol Hsiao-Griffin’s choreography, “Souls in Motion,” at this spring’s all-grades dance concert. The show featured student performances from dancers across our Upper and Middle School dance programs, and pieces by seven student choreographers.
Amy Lambert
DANCE EDUCATOR, DANCE ARTIST, CHOREOGRAPHER
in the vision, and an audience to share it with was the most magical moment of all,” Amy reflected after the show hit the stage. “Performance is community activation.”
An award-winning, Seattle-based dance artist, Amy spends much of her time outside the classroom choreographing and directing concert dance and musical theater, on top of running her own company, RicketySticks DanceTheater. With a BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts, she’s been honored with a DanceCrush award from SeattleDances and has had her choreography presented at numerous venues, including Seattle International Dance Festival and Benaroya Hall.
This spring, she premiered a new, evening-length production titled This Is A Drama Comedy. Thematically somewhere between tragedy and comedy, and at the intersection of theater and dance, it dove into topics of ritual, sacrifice, loneliness, and community.
“Having a crew of talented artists, donors who believed
On the connection between choreographing and teaching: I first learned how to teach dance by teaching choreography during rehearsals. Early on, I realized that the clearer I could communicate in the studio, the more success we had with the material. I developed these skills with friends and collaborators, so when I stepped into a more formal teaching role at SAAS in 2018, I felt prepared.
Still, nothing compares to working with an actual classroom or studio full of students. As I gained more teaching experience, I noticed how it began to shape my
choreographic process, and it gave me more insight into how to make the rehearsal studio a more equitable space. Teaching and creating are deeply interconnected, and both demand creativity, flexibility, empathy, and a larger vision or mission.
On teaching at SAAS: What I enjoy most about teaching at SAAS is getting to know students at various stages in their journey with dance and the arts. For many of them, our paths intersect in both Middle and Upper School, and it’s incredibly rewarding to build on those relationships over the years.
One of the highlights every year is choreographing the Upper School Musical. It’s a chance to collaborate with other artistic faculty, challenge myself creatively, and celebrate the growth and talent of the students from year to year.
Photo by: Jazzy Photo/Joseph Lambert
“SAAS students know how to stand up and present in front of people. They know how to show their work. They know how to go out into the world and be comfortable with showing themselves off as a whole, complete human being.”
—Annalise Olson ’09, Visual & Media Arts Department Chair
Upper Schoolers in Black and White Photography take turns sharing their portfolios and offering thoughtful feedback to each other during an end-of-year critique session. SAAS’s photography program also includes Digital Photography, Experimental Photography, and Advanced Photography, and our student photographers won over 30 awards in the 2025 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.
Over 20 students across the Middle and Upper Schools performed at the spring String Ensemble Concert, sweeping audiences away with a Mozart quartet, “Tomorrow” from the musical “Annie,” and much more.
Kim Zabelle
STRINGS TEACHER, PERFORMER, RECORDING ARTIST
It’s not common for a violinist to join the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra at age 22—but Kim’s career has been full of unique experiences. In addition to playing violin in the acclaimed PNB Orchestra for 35 seasons and counting, she’s conducted for groups like Vivace Chamber Players and Marrowstonein-the-City, directed the Puget Sound Chamber Music Workshop, established herself as a prominent Seattle-area strings teacher, and made studio recordings for movies including “The Matrix” and “Die Hard With a Vengeance.”
Since joining SAAS in 2019, she’s developed our thriving strings program, which includes Middle School String Ensemble and Upper School String Ensemble—and will expand with a new offering, 6th Grade Beginning Violin, this fall. Teaching has been a cherished part of her multifaceted career.
“This is the time in my life when I get to give back to my community,” says Kim.
On teaching strings at SAAS: The diversity of the SAAS community is so beautiful to work with. I have nine individuals
who really spark our school’s mission statement and the Culture of Performance. They’re such individuals and then we become our own community and balance and play off of and learn from each other.
On what she loves about her career: Flipping between different instruments—I play violin, viola, and piano—keeps me interested, and I get to share music both as a performer and a teacher. Beyond SAAS, my students range from age three to age 83, so I’m able to work with the whole human spectrum.
Every year, for one week, the SAAS Visual and Media Arts department welcomes a professional model on campus to pose for our Advanced Art and other classes. Figure drawing with a live model is an important learning opportunity for students, says visual arts teacher and department chair Annalise Olson '09; our brains translate three-dimensional forms in a different way, and the time limitations of working with a model challenge the artists. “The drawings are going to look more alive,” says Annalise. “They’re going to have that activeness that you just don’t get when you’re drawing from a photo.”
Our artist-in-residence Adrian Brandon '11 —a New York-based artist and muralist who’s creating a large-scale painting for the new Home of the Upper School—joins current students and families at the Advanced Visual & Media Art Show at SAAS, where everything from painting to ceramic pieces are on display. Throughout the spring trimester, Adrian shared his expertise with students and faculty through open studio hours, lunchtime presentations, and classroom visits.
A Joyful Rite of Passage
SAAS’s 8th Grade Moving Up Ceremony
Seattle Academy’s 8th Grade Moving Up Ceremony offered a heartwarming and dynamic celebration of a class ready to take its next big step. Held with characteristic SAAS spirit, the event honored each student as an individual while reflecting on the collective journey of the Class of 2029.
The ceremony opened with powerful student speeches reflecting on the transformative Seattle Challenge experience and evolving leadership opportunities in the Middle School. These reflections showcased the depth of thought, compassion, confidence, and humor that define this group of students.
The audience was treated to a vibrant array of student performances. The soulful rhythms of music production, an energetic dance piece, and the tight harmonies of the band brought the celebration to life. A special moment of the ceremony came in the form of shared wisdom between Middle School Spanish Teacher Jacob Taylor-Mosquera and his “younger self,” 8th grader Sebastian Tay, whom Jacob enlisted to “interpret my words for the teenagers.” In a heartfelt and hilarious exchange, the two offered reflections and advice across generations. (Jacob: “Practice sustained curiosity in your classes.” Sebastian: “When you’re feeling cooked by a class, lock in and don’t crush out bro.”)
Faculty members rounded out the event with words of encouragement and pride, recognizing both the accomplishments and the personality of this unique class. The ceremony was a joyful recognition of a key milestone—a moment to honor where students have been and who they are becoming.
As the curtain closes on Middle School, the path to Upper School begins lit with promise, pride, and purpose.
Scan the QR code to watch the Class of 2029 Faculty Advice Video
Celebrating the Class of 2025
This June, the Class of 2025 closed their SAAS journey in a way only they could, with a Commencement celebration full of heart, talent, and unforgettable moments. Students took the stage to share powerful reflections, perform original music and dance pieces, bring characters to life through acting, and showcase everything from short films to robotics creations. One highlight? A surprise Cardinal mascot reveal that brought the crowd to its feet. From the opening notes of “Peter Gunn Theme" to the final applause, the ceremony captured the spirit of each graduate of 2025: thoughtful, bold, and unmistakably themselves.
Making an Entrance
Since 1990, SAAS seniors have kicked off graduation with the unmistakable riff of "Peter Gunn Theme." The tradition began when Jon Gross ’90 and Nick Marcuse ’90—likely inspired by The Blues Brothers—performed it at their ceremony. Ever since, the piece has set the tone as students cross the stage with style and swagger.
Senior Voices
Chosen by their peers, seven student speakers shared memories and offered inspiration to a packed audience at McCaw Hall. Watch the ceremony and their speeches at seattleacademy.org/graduation
Eneko Gerard
“Over the past 7 years I’ve been at SAAS, the community’s message has been consistent: be reflective and present in the moment, whether that involves a sport, activity, or
“Success isn’t just measured by academic achievement. Success is measured by how we use the skills we’ve acquired and the lessons we’ve lived through to create change, to question, to build, and to leave things better than we found them.
There is a famous Kenyan proverb that says, ‘The sharpness of the eye is greater than the razor.’ It means that our awareness, our perception—our ability to see clearly what others choose to ignore—is more powerful than the sharpest blade.
In a time when our voices are being questioned, tested, and too often silenced, our clarity, our refusal to blur or look away, becomes one of our greatest tools. Because once we see clearly, we cannot unsee. And once we refuse to ignore, we are called to act.”
a community. A place where I felt safe asking for help. A place where being seen wasn’t just about being noticed—it was about being known.”
Bug Murray
“Being at SAAS doesn’t just mean you are accepted for who you are but they want you to thrive in who you are. One of the things I admire most about SAAS as a school is the opportunities it gives its students. I started off freshman year as a theatre kid and on the track team, but I leave SAAS as a visual artist and a wrestler. But along the way I became a fashion designer, a business entrepreneur, an environmentalist, and a coder.”
Barok Gerbre
who stayed silent. It remembers the ones who answered a deeper call, the ones who were told ‘no’ and said, ‘now watch me.’
Malala was told to stop asking for education. She was shot and stood taller. Mandela was locked away for 27 years. He emerged, not
with vengeance, but vision. Each of them, in their own way, returned. Not unchanged but unbroken.
And maybe you’ve lived a version of that too. Maybe the fact that you’re here, graduating, is itself a rebellion. A quiet revolution. Maybe your odds said otherwise. Maybe the story written for you had a different ending, but here you are, rewriting it.
The world will try to define you before you’ve even found your own name. It will give you pre-written scripts. This is success, this is beauty, this is power. But you didn’t come this far to play a role. You came to make a mark.”
Franklin Heymann and Oliver Butman
“For both of us, being part of building and making SAAS’s Robotics Program so competitive has truly been a gift. Because for us, and for so many others, robotics at SAAS isn’t just a program, and it isn’t just a team. It’s a community—a place where we’ve been able to grow, challenge ourselves, and support one another.”
Olivia Griffin-Williams
Class of 2025 College Matriculation
The Class of 2025 has accomplished so much already, and we couldn’t be prouder. Cheers to the journey ahead!
Amherst College
Babson College
Boston College
Boston University
Brandeis University
Brown University
Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo
Carleton College
Carnegie Mellon University
Central Washington University
Chapman University
Colby College
Colgate University
Colorado College
Columbia University
Cornell University
Duke University
Eckerd College
Elon University
Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University
Emerson College
Endicott College
George Washington University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Hamilton College
Howard University
Kenyon College
Lafayette College
Lehigh University
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola University New Orleans
Macalester College
Middlebury College
Montana Technological University
New York University
Northeastern University
Northwestern University
Oberlin College
Occidental College
Parsons School of Design
Pomona College
Pratt Institute
San Diego State University
Santa Clara University
Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah State University
Scripps College
Seattle Pacific University
Seattle University
Skidmore College
Smith College
St. Olaf College
Swarthmore College
Syracuse University
The New School
Trinity College Dublin
Trinity University
Tufts University
Tulane University
Union College
United States Air Force Academy
University of Arizona
University of British Columbia
University of California - San Diego
University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara
University of Chicago
University of Colorado - Boulder
University of Denver
University of Miami
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
University of Notre Dame
University of Oregon
University of Redlands
University of San Diego
University of San Francisco
University of Southern California
University of St Andrews
University of Utah
University of Victoria
University of VirginiaCharlottesville
University of Washington - Bothell
University of Washington - Seattle
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Vassar College
Villanova University
Wake Forest University
Washington State University
Washington University in St. Louis
Wellesley College
Willamette University
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
SAAS SPOTLIGHTS
CARDINAL ATHLETICS: Next-Level Athletes
Move on to College Sports
13 SAAS seniors have moved on to play their sports at the collegiate level. We honored them with an annual SAAS tradition: our Next Level Athletes Ceremony, celebrating each students’ next chapter and honoring their roots.
As Director of College Advising Melanie Reed said during the celebration: “The kind of hard work it takes to be exceptional both as a student and as an athlete is huge, and we are so proud of all of you.”
Congratulations to our newest college athletes!
Skylar Burkhart (lacrosse at Smith College), Ellie Candell (cross country and track & field at Willamette University), Jalani Clemmons (track & field at Howard University), Nabih Farhat (tennis at Occidental College), Sadie Honig (cross country and track & field at Colorado College), Trudy Inagawa (dive team at United States Air Force Academy), Makaila Johnson (basketball at Savannah State), Rhys Lindhorst (soccer at Chapman University), Isla McNae (soccer at Emerson College), Jaeda Norwood (lacrosse at University of Redlands), Brenna Olson (volleyball at Vassar College), Rhiannon Root (track & field at Pomona Pitzer College), Kaito Schiffer (soccer at St. Olaf College).
SAAS’s Outdoor &
Travel
Program creates profound growth opportunities for students.
Whether they exit their comfort zone to experience life in the Tanzanian village of Makuyuni, to canoe on Canada’s Lake Laberge, or to speak at one of the nation’s largest Model UN conferences, trip participants gain confidence and cultural awareness. And they bring their newfound perspective back to SAAS, where it echoes through classrooms and hallways, through conversations with peers and teachers.
This year, over 215 students participated in a total of 15 trips, exploring seven different countries and six states. (And that’s not including the hundreds of students who attended grade-level retreats, Middle School Adventure Club events, or a host of other off-campus experiential opportunities offered at SAAS.) Over 50 trip leaders—SAAS faculty and staff who draw on their diverse expertise to pitch or lead adventures—plus countless support staff brought each excursion to life for students.
From mountain tops to sandy beaches, trip options vary widely, but “engagement is the unifying factor in the Trips program—engagement from families, students, staff, faculty, community members, and our partner organizations,” says Matt Edenfield, Outdoor & Travel Director. “I’ve never seen a community of educators who are as invested and committed to curating truly life-changing adventures for their students.”
Some signature SAAS trips have stood the test of time and run each year, like the Senior Yukon Trip and the New Orleans Trip, while others launched this year. In either case, the program is “constantly evaluating the outcomes and efficacy of our trips catalog to best serve the ever-evolving needs and desires of the school,” says Matt. “There are already several new trips being proposed for the 2025-2026 school year, and we can’t wait to share developments with the community later this fall.”
On a trip to the Caribbean island of Curaçao, students did yoga and learned about local ecology from a marine biologist and researcher. Then, they got to see underwater ecosystems firsthand on snorkeling excursions.
Language and Culture Immersion Trips
Trips at SAAS prepare students for global citizenship, educating them on different cultures and the lands through which they travel. In 2024-2025, Upper School students lived and worked alongside the Maasai tribe in Tanzania, sharpened their Spanish skills while living with host families in Salamanca, Spain, and learned about entrepreneurial innovation in Japan. Middle School students explored Mexico City’s cultural tapestry through food, museums, walking tours, and more.
Educational and Civic Action Trips
Wherever SAAS trips take us, civic action and academic excellence remain central. Model UN participants flew to Washington, D.C. for NAIMUN, aka the “defacto National Championship of Model UN”— and an opportunity for students to examine our place in a dynamic, globally-connected world. In New Orleans, trip participants practiced civic engagement in a new environment, volunteering on community projects and learning about the city’s culture.
Outdoor Adventure Trips
Outdoor experiences are a key part of SAAS’s trips program, helping students build confidence and skills that transfer far outside of the classroom. This year’s rockclimbing adventures gave all grade levels the chance to expand their comfort zone and deepen bonds with peers in a safe environment. Middle Schoolers and Upper Schoolers camped and climbed in Oregon’s Smith Rock State Park and California’s Joshua Tree National Park, respectively.
Lake Laberge and the Yukon River in Canada.
Cardinals navigated tropical beaches and frozen lakes and studied a variety of ecosystems this school year. Some Upper School students learned about underwater ecosystems and practiced mindfulness on the Caribbean island of Curaçao, while others embarked on a backcountry ski and splitboard trip with professional guides on Mount Baker, learning about avalanche awareness, snow conditions, and outdoor leadership. On the annual Senior Yukon Trip, soon-to-be graduates formed lifelong memories of dogsledding, snowball fights, outdoor glass blowing, and watching the northern lights.
ALUMNI IN ACTION
From supporting NASA missions to building hospitals, these lifelong Cardinals keep inspiring us. And it all started at
SAAS.
Cardinals fly far...
...and many come back to share the insights they’ve gleaned from their journeys. We host proud alumni at reunions around the country each year, connect them through virtual and in-person networking groups, and listen to their stories at key school and community events.
Several alumni delivered impactful speeches at this year’s SAAS In The City, a community celebration and fundraiser that raised over $1.3 million for financial aid. Here’s what four of them have been up to lately and how they built on the foundations that were laid at SAAS.
Scan here to read more about SAAS In The City and watch our alumni speakers.
Reaching the Stars
Nate Lee ’15, Systems Engineer at Lockheed Martin Space
When NASA launched the Artemis 1 mission to the moon in 2022, Seattle Academy alum Nate Lee '15 was there. A Systems Engineer at Lockheed Martin Space, Nate had led testing of the Orion capsule which was now rocketing into space. On launch day, he worked from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to help ensure the multi-day trip to the moon started smoothly.
Before he joined Lockheed Martin right out of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Aerospace Engineering program, Nate explored his passion for engineering back at SAAS. Despite knowing he wanted to be an engineer from a young age, Nate wasn’t shoehorned into a science-only
path. At SAAS, he was involved in everything from performing arts to sports, which he says helped him build soft skills that served him well in engineering school and beyond.
How did SAAS prepare you for your career and life?
You know the stereotype that engineers can’t talk to people? Well, because SAAS students do so many group projects and presentations—whether it’s jazz choir, theater, or dance—I went into college knowing that I could stand in front of a group and present to people. A lot of people don’t get that experience, especially in engineering school. It definitely set me up for success.
“At SAAS, you’re never really told, ‘Oh, you can’t do that.’ It was always like, ‘Okay, you want to do that. We have opportunities to do that. Let’s see how far we can go with it.’”
— Nate Lee ’15
Can you tell us about some career highlights so far?
For the first couple years of my engineering career, I worked in a test lab on the NASA spacecraft Orion. A couple years ago, I switched to doing ATLO (Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations), so now I lead testing on the flight vehicle down in Florida. It’s really cool to be able to see the hardware and see how the whole process comes together, and to be in the same building where parts of the Apollo spacecraft were built. It’s super cool to be in a building with that much history.
Pivots and Core Values
Rosalie Forman Samuels ’09, Global Head of Growth at Consensys
“Yes,
the education was absolutely top-tier, but SAAS teachers would also go the extra mile to check in on you if you were having a bad day and be a shoulder to lean on. That set the standard for being a balanced individual – the balance of academics, being who you are, and giving back to the community.”
— Rosalie Forman Samuels ’09
As Rosalie Forman Samuels prepared to graduate from Seattle Academy in 2009, there were two aspects of life at SAAS she didn’t want to let go of: “the sheer school spirit” and “the caliber of education.”
Searching for a college with those two traits led her to Duke University. “The community there is really engaged, and there’s just a lot of spirit and pride on campus, which was a nice tie-in from SAAS,” she says.
Since Duke, Rosalie’s career has taken her everywhere from NBC News to leading marketing efforts at Venmo to her current role driving user growth at a software technology company. She’s proud of her ability to pivot and follow different interests —all while holding on to the relationships and core values that she developed at SAAS.
How did SAAS set you up for success in and after college?
SAAS shaped me fundamentally in so many facets of my life. In terms of academics, SAAS taught me how to be a very critical and open thinker and how to write.
Relationships-wise, we were quite close with all of our classmates, and we developed really strong connections with teachers. Some of my friends from SAAS have been my friends for more than 20 years at this point lifelong friends and I think it’s because we share so many values that were instilled in us at SAAS.
Your career has taken you from science to journalism to business and marketing. What have you been most proud of along the way?
I’m proud of my ability to pivot. For example, upon exiting school, I thought I wanted to be a journalist, which is a fantastic career. But as I was working at NBC, the thing that ultimately captured my interest was the business model of news and how that was changing at the time. I’m proud of myself for keeping an open mind and seeing the big picture about what’s exciting to me.
Building a Career in Construction
Sarah Gustafson ’17, Senior Project Engineer at Webcor
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 felt 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.”
Sarah’s path so far has involved studying architecture at California Polytechnic State University and building a career in the construction industry. 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.
We want to hear from you, alumni
Hey, alumni… are you up to something cool? Or do you know an old classmate who is? Tell us about it! We love to celebrate Cardinals’ accomplishments. Keep us in the loop by emailing saasalumni@seattleacademy.org or scanning this QR code. Thank you for staying connected to SAAS!
After SAAS, what led you to study architecture?
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.
Throughout my time at SAAS, I tailored my experience to get an education in architecture. I did an Independent Study where I 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.
What are some highlights of your career so far?
After college, I was really interested in construction. I wanted to see how things are actually put together. I now work for WebCor, and I’ve been on the same project since June of 2023, building a hospital. It’s incredibly complicated and important work, 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.
People + Numbers = A Perfect Path
Alex Scoggins ’14, Relationship Manager at Pugh Capital
Don’t be afraid to change directions. That’s Seattle Academy alum Alex Scoggins’ advice, and a lesson that led him to a career sweet spot: combining his enthusiasm for people and data as a relationship manager at the Seattle financial firm Pugh Capital.
As a SAAS student, for example, numbers weren’t Alex’s strongest suit, but after college, he took an internship at a finance firm. “Now I love finance and numbers, and I have a master’s in Business Analytics,” he says. During his undergrad, he started at California Lutheran University sure he would go to law school but then switched tracks to marketing, since he loved interacting with people. That willingness to pivot has served him well.
“You never really figure out who you are, or what you love, or what you love to do, until you start trying multiple things to get to that point,” says Alex. Luckily, SAAS “gets you comfortable being uncomfortable in different spaces and trying new things.”
How did your experience at SAAS prepare you for your next steps?
SAAS taught me a lot of fundamental skills that I realized not a lot of other high schools teach their students for example, presentation and public speaking skills.
SAAS got me comfortable being on a stage—presenting, speaking, singing, dancing. Now I’m in a role where I present to clients, prospects, consultants,
people in boardrooms. I feel so comfortable doing it, because I started so much earlier on.
Tell me a bit about your career path so far.
After I got my undergrad in marketing, I had a marketing internship at the company I’m at now, Pugh Capital. I loved the environment. It’s a really diverse firm, and everyone was so willing to teach me new things. They gave me a job offer right out of college.
I knew I wanted to eventually go back to school and get my master’s. So I worked for two years, thinking to myself, if I were to ever leave the job I’m at, what would be a degree that could benefit me across industries?
Then I learned about Business Analytics, which involves coding, economics, and finance. The degree teaches you how to take a lot of data and either make it a visualization or communicate it in a story.
Today, my main role is relationship management—so I’m responsible for some client relations, as well as some business development and prospecting. The rest of my time I work on data projects, which is how I utilize my master’s. It worked out perfectly.
SAAS SPOTLIGHTS
ALUMNI IN ATHLETICS: What comes after SAAS?
Updates from our now-college athletes.
Surafel Abebe ’23, a studentathlete at Saint Mary’s College of California, got called up to the U-21 Ethiopian National Team this spring for a soccer training camp and several friendly matches against Ethiopian Premier League clubs. “I was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia so it’s always been a dream of mine to get the opportunity to represent my country,” Abebe told Saint Mary’s sports publication. “I’m incredibly grateful to be called into a camp.”
Lucy VanNewkirk ’21, an Ultimate champ who recently graduated from Middlebury College, was named to the All-American First Team in the D-III College Women’s Division in June. On top of that, Middlebury College nominated Lucy for the 2025 Donovan Award, a peer-voted award honoring exceptional skill and athleticism, leadership on and off the field, and a spirit of equity and fairness.
Carson Burke ’22, now playing baseball and studying kinesiology at Pacific Lutheran University, was recently featured in The Seattle Times after saving a life through a stem cell donation—made possible by his school’s “Get in the Game” registry drive with the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation.
Meet our New Trustees!
We’re excited to welcome the newest members of SAAS’s Board of Trustees. These are leaders who bring deep experience and a shared commitment to our school and mission.
Mo Bhende
Mo Bhende
Jayen Bhende ’31
Jayen Bhende ’31
Mo Bhende is CEO and co-founder of Karat, a leading hiring platform for software engineers. Karat launched Brilliant Black Minds to provide free technical interview practice for Black engineers, aiming to diversify the tech industry. Before founding Karat, Mo spent six years at Microsoft leading business development and M&A for XBOX, and earlier managed Microsoft’s Corporate China Fund from Beijing. He holds a BS in Mathematics and Economics from Penn State, an MBA from Wharton, and a Master of Philosophy in Game Theory from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar.
Mo Bhende is CEO and co-founder of Karat, a leading hiring platform for software engineers. Karat launched Brilliant Black Minds to provide free technical interview practice for Black engineers, aiming to diversify the tech industry. Before founding Karat, Mo spent six years at Microsoft leading business development and M&A for XBOX, and earlier managed Microsoft’s Corporate China Fund from Beijing. He holds a BS in Mathematics and Economics from Penn State, an MBA from Wharton, and a Master of Philosophy in Game Theory from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar.
David Byers
David Byers
Gracie Byers ’27; Sydney Byers ’31
Gracie Byers ’27; Sydney Byers ’31
David Byers is Special Counsel in the franchise and distribution team at Miller Nash LLP. Prior to this position, he served as Managing Director, Corporate Counsel at Starbucks. With over 25 years of experience in private practice and in-house legal roles, he specializes in regulatory and transactional work in the franchise and distribution sector. He previously served on the board of trustees for Childhaven.
David Byers most recently served as Managing Director, Corporate Counsel at Starbucks. He brings over 20 years of legal experience, having worked as a shareholder and associate at top law firms, with a focus on commercial litigation, particularly in the franchise, distribution, and banking sectors. He earned a BA in Political Science from Claremont McKenna College and a JD from Duke University School of Law. David also serves on the community leadership board for Childhaven.
Jessica Crain
Jessica Crain
Lennox Crain ’28; Liven Crain ’31
Lennox Crain ’28; Liven Crain ’31
Jessica Crain is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Mindful Therapy Group, one of the largest mental health group practices in the U.S. Since founding the company in 2011, she has helped grow it from a single location into a multi-state platform supporting thousands of independent clinicians. Her work focuses on expanding access to care through innovative, scalable systems. Before launching Mindful, Jessica worked as a registered nurse in oncology and labor and delivery at the University of Washington Medical Center. She brings both clinical insight and entrepreneurial drive to her leadership. Jessica holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts from the University of Washington and an Associate Degree in Nursing from Shoreline Community College.
Jessica Crain is Co-Founder and COO of Mindful Support Services, formerly Mindful Therapy Group, a multi-site behavioral health organization. She brings 12 years of healthcare experience, including 8 years growing the company’s operations. A former oncology and obstetrics nurse at UW Medical Center, Jessica also led training for new nurses. She holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts from the University of Washington and an Associate Degree in Nursing from Shoreline Community College.
Loretta Douglas ’08
Loretta Douglas ’08
Loretta Douglas is the Managing Director and General Counsel at TD & Co., the Seattle-based restaurant group founded by her parents. A Seattle native and part-owner of the company, she plays a key leadership role in guiding the business into its next chapter. Loretta began her career at TD & Co. in 2012 and returned in 2018 after earning her J.D. and working in both private law and corporate ethics. Loretta also serves as a board member with Backpack Brigade.
Loretta Douglas is Managing Director and General Counsel of TD and Co., where she also serves as a part owner. She began her career at Tom Douglas Restaurants before pursuing law, working at firms including Selman Breitman LLP. She rejoined TD and Co. as General Counsel in 2018, was promoted to Managing Director in 2020, and became a part owner in 2024. Loretta serves on the board of Backpack Brigade. She holds a BA in Comparative Religion & Peace and Conflict Studies from Colgate University and a JD from the University of Washington.
Karen Huh
Soo-Jin Climenson ’30; Kimiyo Climenson ’32
Karen Huh is CEO of Zucca, a venture-backed generative AI startup. She brings 20+ years of experience in food and beverage marketing, having led brand and product efforts at Starbucks, Bulletproof, Oobli, Sound Agriculture, and The Good Patch. Her work spans beverages, snacks, and wellness, and builds on an early foundation in tech-focused venture capital. Karen also serves on the board of Excel Swim Club, a local team open to swimmers of all abilities. She holds a degree from Princeton, where she was part of a three-time NCAA championship Women’s Rowing team.
Karen Huh is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Pioneer Square Labs and a seasoned executive in the food and beverage industry. She has held leadership roles at Good Path, Joywell Foods, and Bulletproof 360, where she led brand and product strategy. Karen spent over a decade at Starbucks in roles spanning global innovation and the acquisition of Evolution Fresh. She began her career in venture capital. Karen holds a BA in East Asian Studies from Princeton University and brings deep expertise in scaling consumer brands and leading cross-functional teams.
Aimee Johnson
Aimee Johnson
Myka Johnson ’30; Siena Johnson ’32
Myka Johnson ’30; Siena Johnson ’32
Aimee Johnson is a senior digital and marketing executive with over 30 years of experience spanning technology, retail, consumer packaged goods, and financial services. She is passionate about customercentric innovation, applying strategy, data, and cross functional leadership to drive growth, and currently serves as an advisor, mentor, and consultant. Previously, Aimee was Chief Marketing Officer at Zillow Group, managing teams across brand, creative, product marketing, and insights. Prior to Zillow, she spent nearly 15 years at Starbucks in senior leadership roles, including SVP of Digital Customer Experience and Analytics. Earlier in her career, she held marketing leadership roles at Campbell Soup Company and was a programmer at Sallie Mae. Aimee earned an MBA from George Washington University and a bachelors from Virginia Tech.
Aimee Johnson is a Strategy Advisor at Atypical AI, a learning science and artificial intelligence lab focused on edtech innovation. She is a seasoned marketing and digital executive with expertise in customer experience and brand strategy. Previously, she was Chief Marketing Officer at Zillow Group and held senior leadership roles at Starbucks, including SVP of Digital Customer Experiences. Earlier, she worked in marketing at Campbell Soup Company. Aimee earned a BA in Business Administration from Virginia Tech and an MBA in Marketing from The George Washington University School of Business.
Halsey Bell
Mo Bhende
David Byers
Dwane Chappelle
Jessica Crain
Loretta Douglas '08
Nick Parker
Nick Parker
Isabelle Parker ’28; Olivia Parker '32
Isabelle Parker ’28; Olivia Parker ’32
Nick is President of the Enterprise, Industry & Partnerships organization at Microsoft, enabling customers and partners to achieve more with Microsoft technology. He has held various leadership roles across commercial and consumer businesses since joining the company in 2000. Prior to Microsoft, he lived in Europe and worked for several tech firms, including Visio where he led the North Europe, Middle East, and Africa business for Visio/Shapeware from startup to acquisition. Nick is a sales and business leader driving impactful change through meaningful partnerships and practical AI. His enduring leadership principle is “mission first, people always.”
Nick Parker is Microsoft’s President of Industry and Partnerships Sales, overseeing a global multi-billion-dollar sales organization. He joined Microsoft in 2000 and previously served as Corporate Vice President of Global Partner Solutions. Earlier roles at Microsoft included leadership in systems integrator partnerships and worldwide sales. Before Microsoft, Nick worked at Research Machines and Visio in Europe. He serves on the Board of Trustees at The Evergreen School and brings a depth of experience in strategic partnerships, enterprise sales, and global business leadership.
Anthony Shoecraft
Anthony Shoecraft
Zion Hardy-Shoecraft ’28; Keita Hardy-Shoecraft ’32
Zion Hardy-Shoecraft ’28; Keita Hardy-Shoecraft ’32
Anthony Shoecraft is Principal and Founder of Connector Consulting, advising mission-driven leaders on growing social impact with racial equity at the center. He previously led business development for Kingmakers of Oakland and served in the Seattle Mayor’s Office and Department of Education and Early Learning. A longtime leader in education policy and advocacy, Anthony is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Nonprofit Practice and serves on several advisory committees. He holds an MPA and MSW from the University of Washington and a BA in Psychology from Hampton University.
Anthony Shoecraft is Principal and Founder of Connector Consulting, advising missiondriven leaders on growing social impact with racial equity at the center. He previously led business development for Kingmakers of Oakland and served in the Seattle Mayor’s Office and Department of Education and Early Learning. A longtime leader in education policy and advocacy, Anthony is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Nonprofit Practice and serves on several advisory committees. He holds an MPA and MSW from the University of Washington and a BA in Psychology from Hampton University.
2025-2026 Board of Trustees
Board of Trustees
Matt Echohawk-Hayashi
Jennie Fox
Karen Huh
Claudia Hung
Babak Parviz
Bill Predmore
Anthony Shoecraft
Aravind Swaminathan
Angela Gaynor
Angela Gaynor
Martinique Grigg
Allison Hintz
Austen Holman '04
Aimee Johnson
Dwayne McClain
Jill Nishi
Nick Parker
Matt Rosauer
Mimi Rosen
Kirsten Saint Clair
CB Shamah
Mark Vadon
Kimberly Watson
Anna Woodard
SAAS IN FOCUS: Volume 7 // 2025
SEATTLE ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
1201 E. Union St, Seattle, WA 98122
www.seattleacademy.org
@seattleacademy
In a chemistry lab focused on solubility, 10th graders investigate the intermolecular forces that allow substances to dissolve into each other as they make predictions, mix solutes and solvents, and record their observations. “It’s exciting because it’s the first time they can actually see with their own eyes what I’ve been teaching them—the intermolecular forces at work,” says Upper School science teacher Erin Schwartz.
