Student Profiles

This summer, graduate student Zsalina Allen participated in a sustainable transportation study abroad program in Denmark and Sweden. She documented her travels in a fascinating and entertaining blog. We followed up to learn more about her experience in Scandinavia, as well her UArizona MS Urban Planning experience.

BS in Sustainable Built Environments student Shamara Smith came to UArizona from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In this video profile, she discusses how she became interested in sustainability, her passions for leaving the world better than she found it, why community engagement is important and the value of networking in building a new career.

MS Urban Planning student Christina Scarpitti made her way to Tucson in the midst of the pandemic. Although her time here came with a few trials, she looks back and reflects on the positive experience CAPLA and the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning have provided her as she enters the job field.

B.Arch student Christine Ufondu, who is also pursuing in a Minor in Real Estate Development, will graduate in 2025. She was born in Houston, Texas, but mostly grew up in Rivers State, Nigeria. Though she chose to come to CAPLA site unseen, it was the right decision: she loves the community of faculty, students and immersive design.

Tayler Forsberg, who is from Rice Lake, Wisconsin, will graduate from the Bachelor of Architecture program in May 2022. He then plans to attend graduate school before working towards becoming a registered architect and, eventually, teaching.

Yaqui tribe member Daniel Vega, who is from Tucson, graduated from the BS in Sustainable Built Environments program in December 2021. Continuing his passion for sustainable design, he is taking advantage of the CAPLA Master of Architecture accelerated master’s program (AMP), which he will complete in 2024.

Master of Landscape Architecture student Irene Pineda is from La Puente, California, located 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. She earned her BA in Communicative Disorders from San Francisco State University and served as a public school teacher before falling in love with the Sonoran Desert and joining the MLA program.

Bachelor of Architecture student David Zúñiga is from Nogales, Arizona. In this profile, he discusses his passion for cinema and architecture, how architecture school makes him a critical thinker, his experience in the CAPLA Hispanic student organization PUENTE, how he's learning to be patient and more.

Ash Avila, a Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Built Environments student from Nogales, Arizona, who will graduate in 2023, has been awarded an acclaimed Transportation Research Board (TRB) Minority Student Fellowship for 2022. Avila is one of 24 students selected by TRB.

Bachelor of Architecture student Athba Alradaan, who is from Kuwait, took advantage of remote learning due to the pandemic to participate in two informative internships in her home country. In this profile, she shares what she loves about architecture, how she's overcome challenges and more.

B.Arch student Rachael Varin, who was born and raised in Tucson, has used her CAPLA studio and design/build experience, as well as her internships in Arizona and California, to build upon her passion for construction.

Master of Landscape Architecture student Christian Aguilar Murrieta is from Ciudad Constitucion, Baja California Sur, Mexico, a small city surrounded by agricultural fields and chirinolas. She moved to Tucson in 2013 after earning her undergraduate degree in sustainable tourism at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California Sur.