T3 Alumni Sean McDonald’s Journey Into Alaska’s Energy Future

When Sean McDonald joined Upward Bound and T3 Alaska in 2020 as a freshman in Wrangell, he didn’t know that a virtual summer program during COVID-19 would launch him toward a future in renewable energy. Four years later, he’s an electrical engineering student at Boise State University spending his summers building solar arrays across rural Alaska—proof that hands-on learning can change a young person’s entire trajectory.

Sean’s T3 story is one of momentum where each learning opportunity became a seed for future fruition. He dove into drone work, energy clubs, microgrid courses, and real-world community projects. From mapping USFS remote cabins and trails, to capturing drone footage at Anan Bear Observatory and LeConte Glacier, to completing the Cordova Energy Audit, Sean embraced every opportunity. He attended the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference, worked with the “House of the Reising Sun” energy team, completed EdX microgrid training, and even helped install a solar panel system to power a greenhouse dehumidifier at his school. By senior year he’d earned his FAA Part 107 license, completed leadership conferences, and built a reputation for being the kind of student who shows up, learns fast, and lifts up the people around him.

Those experiences helped clarify his path. Sean originally thought he wanted to pursue computer engineering, but the hands-on projects, coding experiences, and T3’s growth-mindset approach helped him realize that his excitement lived somewhere else: in building, creating, and solving real-world problems.

“T3 gave me opportunities that normal school couldn’t,” Sean says. “It was a great outlet for a different kind of learning. Not classroom education, not quite college either—getting out, talking to people, and doing stuff. T3’s teaching methodology was easy to apply, because it was real-world experience.”

After graduating in 2024, Sean headed to Boise State University to study electrical engineering. His first semester wasn’t smooth—“Two math classes per semester is too much!” he jokes—but the setback didn’t stop him. Over winter break he regrouped, planned better, and headed into summer with a clear sense of purpose.

That’s when the seeds planted in Wrangell really started to grow.
This past summer, Sean is working as a laborer with Sunstone Electric, supporting renewable energy projects across Alaska. In Tok, he helped build a 1MW solar array for the local school. In Anchorage, he worked on array clean-up. In Galena, he helped prepare for equipment to be barged up from Nenana. By mid-to-late July, he was helping to build a new array—gaining skills, sweat, and experience that will serve him long after college.

He’s not an electrical apprentice yet—so he can’t touch the wiring—but he’s building structures, maintaining sites, and learning the rhythm of the work. “I’m in Palmer with my parents for the summer,” he says. “It’s a good stepping stone. I’m doing clean-up, structural building, all the hands-on stuff.”

Along the way, Sean has been shaped by people who believed in him, including T3 Alaska’s project manager Brian Reggiani.
“Sean is one of the best role models,” Reggiani says. “Hard work, dedication. He was there with us, wanting to learn along with us. He has never been a teacher, so it changed the way he presented things as a student leader. He taught from a life-perspective, not a teacher-perspective.”

And he has a big, ‘Let’s just do it!’ mindset.” From drones to microgrids to solar fields stretching across tundra communities, Sean’s journey shows how early sparks of curiosity—nurtured with opportunity, mentorship, and hands-on learning—can grow into a powerful career path.