Scholarship Winner
Izabella Flores
2024 FASAE SoCal Education Foundation Alimento-Niere Scholarship recipient.
Izabella Flores is a senior at the University of Southern California pursuing a Bachelor of Architecture degree. She grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she was one of the few Filipinas in her town. Watching the daily hard work of her parents, a microbiologist and an emergency room nurse who immigrated from the Philippines, taught her the value of dedication early on. Moving to Los Angeles to study design was a major shift from her small hometown, but her academic work has already earned her the Geralyn Lambson Endowed Scholarship and the Russell Gamble Endowed Scholarship.
In the studio, Izabella works with software like Rhino3D, Revit, and AutoCAD. She has built up practical experience as an intern architect at HNTB in Los Angeles. During her time there, she contributed to the USC West Athletics Feasibility Study by 3D-modeling and printing a scale model of a baseball bowl. She also worked on the San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport renovation, where she translated existing concourse and apron drawings into 3D Revit models for video rendering.
As a first-generation American, Izabella rarely found mentors from similar backgrounds while navigating the architecture field. Because of this, she focuses on being a guide for younger people from her hometown who call her Ate or Manang Bella. She routinely answers messages from younger family friends seeking advice on university admissions and the transition to living away from home. Her background in community service started early through the Coastal Bend Filipino-American Association, where she participated in beach cleanups, performed traditional dances, and helped at local soup kitchens.
After graduation, Izabella plans to create approachable mentorship networks and workshops for Filipino students and other designers of color. She intends to use social media and campus outreach to build professional connections and make the industry feel more accessible. Her goal is to ensure that younger students entering the architecture profession have a reliable person to turn to so they do not have to figure out the industry alone.