Where are they now? North Allegheny’s Sarah Woods

Sarah Woods caught the attention of her HVAC instructors early on in her time in the program.

She was quiet, diligent in her work and mindful of every detail no matter how small.

“Sarah was a fantastic, role model student,” Mr. Hughes said. “And she’s doing really good now, too. I always knew she would do good.”

Sarah, a 2022 North Allegheny graduate, is now in the IUOE Local 95 and works at UPMC as a Maintenance Technician for the Electrical Department.

“I absolutely love my job,” Sarah said. “I work with a great group of guys who have supported me throughout my past year and a half at work.”

Sarah’s coworkers inspired her to go back to school to earn an Associate’s Degree in Electrical Construction.

“Balancing going to school full time and working full time has been very stressful at times, and without my coworkers I do not know where I would be,” Sarah said. “I love working in a commercial setting as every day there is always something different that my coworkers and I will be working on.”

Sarah’s primary focus includes being responsible for generators, switchgear, the fire alarm system, and electrical projects.

“It is hard to pick what I like best about my job since I love every aspect of it,” Sarah said.

Sarah credited Mr. Hughes and Mr. Miller, who has since retired, with preparing her for a career.

“They mentored and guided me towards areas I excelled in and what I wanted or needed to focus more on,” she said. “They were excellent teachers who taught each and every student equally and fairly. They emphasized professionalism and respect that was necessary for the real world and job environments we were going to enter into after graduation.”

Pursuing a career in the HVAC field was easy to envision for Sarah – most of her family already worked in the trades.

Some of her fondest childhood memories, she said, were working on vehicles and motorcycles with her dad.

“Naturally, I love working with my hands and problem-solving,” she said. “I discovered Beattie through my school district and decided to tour the school. I immediately fell in love with the vast variety of work involved in the HVAC program.”

She quickly realized how much fun it was to work with refrigeration systems and learn how to troubleshoot furnaces and air conditioners, which prepared her for the electrical field.

She realized even more quickly how important every lesson was in the classroom.

“(You have to) show up every day and pay attention to everything that the teachers are presenting to you,” she said. “When you get into the field, you are not going to have people holding your hand each step of the way.”

Sarah also said good advice for current students would be to get involved with as many opportunities at the career center as possible.

Sarah participated in cooperative education for two years to gain exposure to what being in the field is like and participated in SkillsUSA, in which she earned a state championship and earned second place in nation with Pine-Richland’s Alijah Christner and North Hills’ Marisa White in the Chapter Display team competition.

“I could not imagine what I would be doing now if I hadn’t taken a chance on the HVAC program and every else Beattie offered,” Sarah said. “I’ll always be grateful for those experiences.”