Sage Ahrens-Nichols, a 2024 UW Tacoma graduate, placed third on Season 49 of CBS's Survivor. Ahrens-Nichols credited her Master of Social Work coursework in intersectionality with shaping the social strategy that carried her to the final tribal council in Fiji.

Ahrens-Nichols, 30, was one of 18 players marooned for nearly a month on the Mamanuca Islands. She survived 26 days without immunity protection and had only one vote cast against her all season. At the Dec. 18, 2025, finale, she received one of eight jury votes, according to Deadline. Savannah Louie won the $1 million prize with five votes. Sophi Balerdi finished second with two.

It was the first all-women final three since Season 29 in 2014, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Army to social work

Ahrens-Nichols grew up in rural North Carolina and enlisted in the U.S. Army at 18 to avoid student loan debt while her twin brother headed to a private university. She served roughly a decade, starting in a combat-arms role, deploying to Afghanistan and later reclassifying to intelligence operations.

Near the end of her military career, she worked in a behavioral health unit. That assignment opened her eyes to social work as a profession.

She enrolled in UW Tacoma's School of Social Work & Criminal Justice in 2021. A profile published Sunday, Sept. 27, by UW Tacoma's newsroom detailed how the program reshaped her understanding of other people.

"If I had played Survivor 10 years ago, before studying social work, it would've been an entirely different outcome; I would've taken everything as a personal attack," Ahrens-Nichols said in the profile. "Finally, it was like, 'Wait — not everything's about me.' And for that reason, I don't need to take things personally."

Intersectionality on the island

Ahrens-Nichols credited UW Tacoma social work professor Anindita Bhattacharya with introducing her to the concept of intersectionality. After reading one of Ahrens-Nichols's papers, Bhattacharya encouraged her to pursue doctoral-level work.

That mentorship helped her learn to understand people through their own experiences rather than her own frame of reference, Ahrens-Nichols said. On Survivor, that skill translated into trust-building. She played both sides of alliances without drawing suspicion.

At Final Tribal Council, Ahrens-Nichols revealed her decade-long military career to the other players for the first time. Her single jury vote came from ally Jawan Pitts.

She kept busy outside the classroom, too. While at UW Tacoma, Ahrens-Nichols served as poetry editor of the campus literary and arts magazine, Tahoma West, and presented her capstone project in William Philip Hall before graduating in 2024.