One summer Kenia Suarez decided to visit NJIT. The Lima, Perú native wanted to find out how she could get accepted into NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design. Little did she know that after that first visit, her career and dreams would take off.
“I went to HCAD, and there were a few professors during summer,” said Suarez. “I was very nervous because I didn't speak much English at the time, and they encouraged me to try it out. One of the professors was John Cays, and he inspired me a lot to just try it, and I did it. When I got accepted, I was over the moon.”
Suarez began her architectural studies in Perú at Universidad Privada del Norte, but she felt that she didn’t receive the right guidance as she did in NJIT.
At NJIT, she worked closely with professors of practice Erin Pellegrino and Charlie Firestone. Suarez believes the projects Hope Village and Resilient Hope made her grow and gain more confidence.
“All the professors have influenced me one way or another,” said Suarez. “Erin [Pellegrino] and Charlie [Firestone] were the most important. I wasn’t so confident at first; I struggled in how to present and fell in the trap of thinking that my ideas weren’t good enough, and that came from my time in Perú because I never received proper guidance.
“They always told me that my project wasn’t good enough, but never guided me on how to make it better. Erin and Charlie gave me confidence and told me, ‘You have good ideas, maybe it takes more time for you to express them, but your ideas are good and you work hard.’ That gave me so much confidence in myself.”
Adapting quickly to life in the U.S. involved balancing many things like learning the language, working, being present for family members and pursuing her career. There were times that Suarez would have to see online videos for class three times in order to fully understand the lesson.
“It’s difficult to balance everything – learning a new language, time for your family, working and studying in a language that’s not yours. Wow! I remember that we had classes through video, and it was an hour-long. It didn’t take me an hour to see it, I needed like two hours because I repeated it, rewinded it and started it over,” said Suarez. “I would slow it down, so it was complicated to adapt to a new place, new language, new culture. It was difficult balancing everything, but I did it.”
As a Newark resident, Suarez felt a lot of satisfaction to see her work and her colleagues’ helping out the community, like Hope Village. “These types of investigations, these types of projects help you understand in a profound way the problems in the city. It opens your eyes to the issues,” she said.
In the next months, Suarez hopes to get a job at an architecture firm and also get her license. She wants to continue working on community-focused projects. “I want to be involved with any job that has to do with the community, just like how we helped out the homeless community [in Newark]. More than making fancy or elaborate things, I feel there’s something important in helping those that need it the most. It’s a great form of applying architecture.”
“Kenia stands out not just for her imagination, talent and hard work, but also for her exceptional character and vibrant personality,” said Pellegrino. “In our community-focused design/build studios, her positive attitude and motivational spirit were truly transformative, energizing her peers through even the most demanding projects.
“Kenia’s dedication and leadership have not only made the studio and the work better, but promise a luminous future in architecture where her impact will undoubtedly continue to resonate.”
Suarez misses her neighborhood in Perú, also her country’s culture, music, food and people, but something she kept and brought with her to the U.S. is her countrymen’s work ethic.
“The idea of working hard no matter what comes your way. It’s the ability to say, ‘Yes, it’s hard, but let’s keep going.’ In Perú, we have a culture of continuing with a smile when things look difficult,” said Suarez. “You might feel a shove at some point, but you have to keep going.
“That has been something that has guided me until now. Some people call this stubbornness, or they may say that I’m stubborn. I started something, and I have to finish it.”
