1. New Design, New Life: A Passion for Architecture
Another toy. She was thrilled her parents had surprised her with a new doll to play with. Looking back, Jennifer Carvajal, 17, from Elmwood Park, Ill., realized her parents did a really good job at making it seem like everything was OK, paint a picture, plaster a wide smile, when at times, it couldn’t seem to get any worse. “Now, I realized that the toys I played with were just from the dollar store,” Jennifer says as tears run down her cheeks.
In the fall of 2002, Jennifer’s father, Fernando, had lost his job in Ecuador due to tough economic times and her mother, Angela, had to shut down her own orthopedic practice. A few months later, they’d all leave everything they knew and loved to come to the Windy City. To this day, her family has not returned.
Growing up was especially hard for Jennifer -- from living in her uncle’s crowded home, to moving to a small basement space, from watching her parents struggle as they worked jobs they were over-qualified for, for 16 hours a day, to them going back to community college to learn English. She distinctly recalls seeing her father walk around with a notebook full of English words he’d written down. As if it wasn’t already hard, she watched her parents mourn the tragic deaths of their parents and even a sibling back in Ecuador. Because Jennifer’s parents weren’t legal residents of the United States at the time, they couldn’t go back to say their final goodbyes and see their loved ones in caskets.
Jennifer Carvajal, posing in front of a modern home structure in a Miami architecture studio, sees herself building similar homes in Ecuador one day. (Photo by Magdalena Wyszynski)

2. --Magdalena Wyszynski
Despite the troubling past, the family managed to get on their feet. Today, they live in Elmwood Park, both sisters attend private schools, and Jennifer’s father runs a successful valet parking business, Master Valet Parking. But even in leaner days, her parents were nothing but supportive, loving and uplifting. They came with nothing but managed to give Jennifer everything, and for that she will forever grateful.
Growing up in Chicago, she has always been fascinated by the unique architecture surrounding her. “I can’t even describe it. I walk down Michigan Avenue and I look at the city and tell myself, ‘I want to do that!’ ” She developed a passion for interior design and architecture at a young age. After New Orleans was hit by a hurricane, Jennifer signed up to be part of a mission trip where she visited families devastated by the disaster and helped restore homes. She was instantly inspired by the work of actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as they built homes for poor families. “Every house was a different color and structured differently because they wanted to add color to their lives,” Jennifer explained. This year she will make her third trip to New Orleans to help with rebuilding projects in the city.
Over the past two weeks in the architecture module of the Summer Scholars program, Jennifer has been working on a chair model that she can’t seem to perfect. She wakes up early, skips lunch, stays overtime in the workshop -- and when visited, smiles and says, “I’m having fun” despite what her aching body and puffy eyes may be saying. Facing and overcoming challenges runs in her blood.
Jennifer hopes to become a Miami Redhawk in the fall of 2016 and study architecture. “I don’t want to be rich or anything. My biggest dream would be to graduate from Miami University with my architecture degree and go back to Ecuador and work with my cousins, who are engineers and architects. I want to start a charity and build homes for the poor.”
--Magdalena Wyszynski
Jennifer is fascinated by blueprints and plans. She takes her turn at analyzing the structure of a big project. (Photo by Magdalena Wyszynski)