Father and daughter architects graduate from FIU together


In celebration of Father’s Day, FIU News profiles a proud Panther dad and his Panther daughter, both on the road to success after graduating together.

Yanelle Suarez M.Arch. '15 and her father, Tomas Suarez M.Arch. '15, at their commencement ceremony May 11.

Yanelle Suarez MA ’16 and her father, Tomas Suarez Jr. MA ’16, at their commencement ceremony May 11.

Like many fathers, Tomas Suarez Jr. watched proudly as his daughter Yanelle graduated in May with a master’s degree in architecture. But unlike most parents that day, Tomas had a VIP view of her commencement: He got to follow right behind Yanelle as she walked across the stage. He too graduated from FIU that day.

Yanelle caught President Mark B. Rosenberg’s attention, along with that of the entire audience, when she stopped in the middle of the stage and asked for a photo with the man walking behind her, proudly announcing to Rosenberg, “He’s my dad. He’s graduating, too.”

“It confirms and validates our work,” Rosenberg said of graduating two generations side by side. “It confirms and validates all that is good about FIU.”

Different paths led Tomas and Yanelle to the Accelerated Master of Architecture program at FIU’s College of Architecture + the Arts. Tomas, an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army Reserve, worked in architecture when his children were young, but had to give up the field after being activated for duty.

Having been exposed to the field since she was young, Yanelle never wanted to go into architecture when she grew up.

“As a kid, I used to harass him about ‘always drawing lines’ and hated when he would drag me and my sister to meet with clients and deliver plans or do surveys. His job was so boring,” she joked.

And yet her interest in art and math made architecture a logical choice; so she headed to Palm Beach State College to pursue a bachelor’s. Once at FIU, she and her dad ended up having most of their classes together, and they bonded over school through evening phone conversations, during which Yanelle frequently found herself reminding her father of homework assignments due the next day.

“He’d franticly respond with, ‘What? What homework? Which class? When is it due?’ Every single time,” said Yanelle. “He blamed it on his age, but that man just had too much on his plate. What, with a full-time job and full-time family on top of full-time school, he just had way too many full-times.”

Yanelle and dadThough Tomas sometimes had trouble coping with his jam-packed schedule, he drew strength from his daughter’s work ethic and talent.

“Although I didn’t tell her, just watching her work from across the classroom or in the adjacent studio, and her sharing her processes or thoughts, was an inspiration for me,” he said. “Sometimes when the combined workloads between work, school and family became overwhelming, I found that just knowing we could hang out for our five-minute walks to the coffee shop would be worth enduring the stress of just one more class, or one more presentation.”

Yanelle remembers on her first day at FIU, she was unsure how she was supposed to act around her dad at school.

“We got out of class around lunch time, and I was so confused,” she said. “I thought to myself, ‘Who am I supposed to eat lunch with? Do I eat with Dad? Do I sit with my friends? Do I make new friends?’ It was so juvenile of me, but it was very confusing at the time.”

Deciding it didn’t matter, however, Yanelle ate lunch with her dad that day and many days after in the following semesters. The two even developed the same friends in the small architectural program, with other students referring to Tomas as “Dad” to Yanelle’s amusement.

Yanelle and her father have different goals for their careers. Tomas has hinted at going into business together, but the would-be “Suarez and Suarez” architectural firm remains just an idea for now.

“I always tell her that if we were to go into business as one it would be great,” Tomas said. “We are a yin and yang in our design processes—totally opposite. I’m linear and regimented, where she is naturally flowing and curvilinear. Yet when we see each other’s projects, we both love the other’s work as opposed to our own. Well, we love our own pieces and wish that we could somehow design like the other.”

Yanelle isn’t sure yet what she wants to do in her career. But Tomas sees a bright future for his daughter—one where she combines her passion for design with the digital world, perhaps working with Disney or a video game developer to design animated cities.

Tomas hopes to channel his experience in the service into a career in architecture by working for Miami-Dade County.

“This is my best hope, as it will let me continue to serve the public while providing my past experience and newfound knowledge,” he said.

No matter where Tomas and Yanelle end up, one thing is sure: They will continue to motivate each other to attain all that they want in life.

“She inspires me every day,” he said. “Seeing the way she has developed into such a wonderful young lady has been incredible. Her tenacity and diligence in everything that she does is unparalleled.”