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Alumni in Action: Premiere Performances and New Beginnings
March
23
2026
Alumni in Action: Premiere Performances and New Beginnings
Alexa Jarvis ’08 is one of five alumni speaking at the 2026
SAAS in the City
on March 28.
By:
Sarah-Mae McCullough
, Editorial Content Manager
Heading into her final year at SAAS, Alexa Jarvis ’08, was a star singer in The Onions, SAAS’s legendary, advanced Jazz Choir. A performer in local choirs since age seven and a passionate participant in SAAS’s extensive music program, she was known as “the girl with the really good singing voice.”
In her senior year, “the girl with the really good singing voice” made an unexpected choice: to sign up for Advanced Acting instead of Jazz Choir I. At any other institution, that pivot may have been frowned upon, Alexa said. But at SAAS, a school where sampling broadly is core to the curriculum, “I was encouraged to try something new, to follow that gut impulse, and to expand,” she said. “I’m so glad I did.”
Advanced Acting led Alexa down a two-fold path: exploring theater alongside music, culminating in a full-time, 8-season career with the GRAMMY Award-winning Metropolitan Opera Chorus in New York City.
The bravery to begin down a new path, guided by an inner knowing rather than other people’s expectations, has shaped Alexa’s journey. It’s something she began honing at SAAS and carried with her far beyond campus—alongside technical music skills and a drive to serve her community. The result has been a career built on musical excellence, diverse skillsets, and meaningful contributions.
At SAAS, wideranging opportunities and thoughtful teachers helped Alexa start listening to that inner voice, she said. Her middle and high school days were filled with new experiences and challenges, from camping on a frozen lake during the Senior Yukon Trip to dancing at End of Tri.
“When you spend such a core part of your formative years at an institution like that, where there is just an endless avenue for exploration and possibility, you learn how to follow what feels right,” she said. “SAAS allowed me to try new things and develop that self-efficacy.”
Her voice and confidence also grew through SAAS’s humanities and writing curriculum. Her 6th-grade Latin teacher,
George Burpee
, “challenges me and didn’t settle for less than what he knew I was capable of,” she said. And her 12th-grade English teacher,
Alison Ray
, “really helped me find my own voice and style of writing and helped me develop it, rather than change it.”
Another important part of Alexa’s time at SAAS happened off campus—engaging with the broader Seattle community. The school’s
Community Action
program includes the annual Seattle Challenge, where 8th graders explore the city while learning about and volunteering with local nonprofits, and 120 service hours that every student graduates with.
“The opportunities we had to volunteer were really profound for me,” Alexa said. “That really ignited my interest in helping people and wanting to connect one-on-one.”
With both a conviction in the value of service and the confidence to listen to her gut, Alexa made a bold pivot last year. She resigned from her tenure at The Met to support individuals and families as an end-of-life doula, a deeply meaningful role she felt called towards after supporting her mom at the end of her life. Her aim is to both support individuals and families and to shape the cultural narratives around death and grief.
While she continues to perform gigs and teach music, “what is unfurling is what feels more like my life's work,” Alexa said.
She hopes that new SAAS grads will follow their instincts, too, pursuing the path that feels authentic to them.
“Tune out all the noise and the societal pressure,” she encouraged. “Trust the inner compass that you’ve spent the last seven years building at SAAS.”
SAAS In Focus, Vol. 7 (2025)
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