Sara DeSalvo

I've been blessed with incredible mentors throughout my career who have guided and supported me along the way. My seventh grade technology teacher, Steve Muscari, was the catalyst who first recognized my spatial awareness talents and suggested I might want to be an architect. My first mentor at my high school internship was Jason Benfonte, who is still in the industry and I still meet with for drinks. Maria Basil was the first woman who really gave me belief in myself. I saw myself in her, and she helped me think about becoming an actual licensed architect, checking in on me and talking me through that long and daunting process. She was the catalyst that pushed me to be further and better in my career. At my current firm, Dwyer Architectural, I got four wonderful years under the founder Kim Dwyer before she retired. She's such a force, a quiet force, but it doesn't change how much she can still influence you. I'm still in touch with her today. I've had some great leaders and support along the way, and I've also had some crappy ones that showed me what not to do, and all of that inspired me to give back through mentoring others.

Trust your gut and instincts. It's exactly what people told me - it's a hard life. The hours are hard, and the information is a lot, but if you know it in your soul, like I did, or you love it as much as I do, none of it seems hard. And when you do hit some of those bumps along the way, you can go back to that trust in yourself, of just, no, I was born to do this. But know that there are going to be some of those bumps. There's going to be the bad jobs, and the bad bosses, and even the bad clients. And it's not for everybody. It's a long, arduous road. But if you love it and know it in your soul, it's worth it.

A lot of my strength comes from vulnerability. I think just being real with people, and being open to being like, I don't know about that procedure, can you tell me more about that? Or can you walk me through how a patient comes through your clinic? When you get a patient survey back and they said it was the worst experience they had, I ask questions like, can you tell me what they had done, or what kind of day that was, were you short-staffed? I don't pretend to know everything. When you're that open and vulnerable, sometimes you do need somebody to kind of be on the outside lifting you up, because you're filling up everybody else's cup. So every once in a while, I need my cup filled too, so that I can keep doing it for others. Getting the word out there that not only can there be female architects, but there can be female architect leaders is important to me, because that first woman architect who said you can do this too, and being able to see myself in her was so important. If I can even do that for one other woman, I think that would be very meaningful, and who knows who they can help with their talents. Mentoring is my absolute favorite part of my career, and I think because I've had so many great leaders and support along the way, it inspired me to give back.