Architect Designs Her Career
May 20, 2014
LylynnVillafuerte’s story is one of creativity, passion, and success. Cleverly using the resources presented to her at Diamond Bar High School, Villafuerte has transitioned from a curious student at DBHS to an employee at an environmental risk and compliance management company.
A DBHS graduate of 2006, Villafuerte attended USC, majoring in architecture. Her journey began during her junior year in John Jones’ architecture class, where she was able to take advantage of the bountiful opportunities available to her. Her initial interest in architecture strengthened after her experience in the class, where she avidly utilized her talent. Having learned much of the skills in high school, she gained considerable leverage as she transitioned into college.
“Diamond Bar helped me because the skills that I learned here put me so much more ahead of all the other students who were in my architecture classes [at USC] by already knowing how to draft and what drawings looked like. At that point, I became the student who my peers would go to and look for help,” said Villafuerte.
As a Trojan, she was able to tailor her curriculum to her own interests and attributes much of her success to the professors and the strong Trojan network. She graduated in 2010 and is now employed at EBI Consulting as an architectural engineer designer. Villafuerte spends much of her time working with engineers, contractors, and city planners in order to design construction drawings for telecommunication facilities.
When she was hired at the age of 24, she was the youngest in her division. However, this was not her first job—she was able to acquire an internship as a freshmen at USC because of her prior experience in Jones’ class.
Her acquisition of an internship at such a young age exemplifies the advantage that DBHS has given her and how the Brahma education has impacted her career.
As an architect, Lylynn describes her style as modern and simplistic. Her favorite building is Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House near Chicago because of its minimalism.
Because of the impact DBHS has made on Lylynn, she returns to DBHS at least once a week on varying days to share her knowledge with Jones’ students in the room where her architecture career first began.
