This woman was the first to complete Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer training, and serve
Sara Faulkner's stunning accomplishment of being the first woman to graduate from the Coast Guard's grueling sixteen-week training program and then work as a rescue swimmer came about partly by coincidence. (Two women, Kelly Mogk '86 and Jody Vander Hyden '89, were graduates and swimmers following the Navy's course in earlier years.)
"I'm an actual valley girl," says Sara Faulkner early on in our conversation. "I grew up in LA, but I was really disenchanted by all that LA represented. I knew by junior high that I wouldn't stick around."
Sara grew up with three siblings, two older sisters and a twin brother. Living in LA, she says her swimming came naturally with a pool in the backyard and endless days at the beach.
"Then in high school I was running cross-country with a friend, and we were complaining about how hot it was. We decided to join the swim team. I tried out, made it, and I loved it."
Making the team wasn't enough though, and the way she attacked the swim team is how she lives her life.