For the past year, GBD has had the pleasure of working with Sarygh Dalton—a member of next year’s De La Salle North Catholic High School senior class. Sarygh’s school was founded on a unique platform of preparing students for their professional careers by placing them in companies throughout the Portland Metro Area.

Spearheading the program for GBD, Michael Coon has served as Sarygh’s mentor and manager for the year. He is the first to admit that we’ve thrown a lot of challenging projects her way. With each one, she has built knowledge and confidence that has prepared her to readily tackle the next. As a result, we’ve seen Sarygh grow tremendously, developing skills beyond her years.

The highlight of our year was when six GBDers had the opportunity to witness Sarygh’s leadership abilities on display during the Rotary Club’s annual Enterprise Academy Camp. In this weekend retreat, high school students team with successful business people to dream up their own unique business plan. The weekend culminates in a final group presentation, in which each team’s business plan is put to the test. Sarygh not only participated in the camp, but was elected the CEO of her team, and led her team to victory! Her team took first place in the competition, and voted her the MVP. 

Sarygh’s final project at GBD harnessed all of her technical and leadership skills. Her task: Solve a design challenge within her school by applying the architectural principles she had learned. Sarygh’s solution: Transform leftover and forgotten spaces at De La Salle into social spaces that would benefit students. To do so, she poured over case studies of other successful school renovations, interviewed fellow students and faculty, and researched the effect of design on student success. Yesterday, on Sarygh’s last day at GBD, she presented her findings to our staff of nearly 90 people. We were nothing short of inspired by her work.

Reflecting upon our year together, we asked Sarygh about her experience working in architecture. She told us that she was initially frightened to jump into a new field, and that her friends warned her it’d be a lot of work. Ultimately, she realized that she had an opportunity to learn a lot of skills: Sarygh is now well-versed in Photoshop, InDesign, AutoCAD, and SketchUp. She learned how to put together a cohesive book, had a chance to explore her creativity, and focus her passions on a project that meant something to her. She even gained the confidence to run for class president.

“Through this process, my mind was expanded to what Architecture really is, and because of that I know now that I want to have a job in this field, or maybe at GBD.”

We hope you will, Sarygh! The pleasure is all ours.