Born in Aley during the 2006 war, Sarah grew up in her grandparents’ home in Nabatieh, between an older and a younger brother. Her relationship with her hometown is complex. She often sought time alone in her room or the surrounding hills, reading and drawing. Having experienced difficulties with speech, she came to value the possibility of expressing through form what she could not easily put into words. Magazine images, dressed-up dolls, and sketches of clothes filled her childhood, and she could picture garments long before she knew how to make them.

Financial and social pressures led Sarah to consider other paths, but trying work she felt little connection to clarified her ambition: she wanted to study design. In 2024, Israeli attacks damaged her family home, forcing them to flee and leaving them scattered across different places. She has returned to Nabatieh only a few times since. Seeing the destruction of surroundings she knows so well remains painful.

Literature, music, and friendships are important parts of Sarah’s life. She is drawn to blue and finds beauty in things that also carry sadness or difficulty. Her designs often begin with an image rooted in culture or nature, which she develops through research and sketching. With interests spanning dramatic concepts, political questions, and philosophical approaches to design, she comes to CSB wanting to give her ideas physical form and develop them through honest critique and conversations with others.