Today we’d like to introduce you to Ivinara Fogaça.
Hi Ivinara, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I arrived in Orlando 4 years ago with the intention of bringing my children to study and experience living in another country, to learn another culture and a new language. We purchased a house in Windermere because the best schools we researched at the time were in this city. Our adaptation was very fast and good because in Windermere the Brazilian community is very big, and that’s why I believe that we don’t feel so much about the change.
We had a company in Brazil, and we planned to stay in the us for two years. I entered as a visa f1 and my husband as an f2 because he needed to go to Brazil at least 1 time a month to address our company affairs. But, with 6 months living here none of us want to go back; we feel so happy and adapted that we made the decision to live definitely.
We started researching about what types of visas there are to make our status adjustment. We visited several lawyers, and after several meetings we choose a company in Miami that after evaluating all my professional history advised us to enter the eb2 visa. I entered my status adjustment in June 2019, and on September 2, 2021, we received our green card at home by mail. This day was certainly one of the happiest days of my life.
In Brazil, we had a construction company specialized in execution of hospitals. My training in architecture and MBA in business management
Together with my husband who has a training in engineering, helped us a lot in deciding to bring our experience of entrepreneurs with more than 15 years in the Brazilian market to the United States. Here we identify the few that popular new houses, we see that in the most humble neighborhoods the houses were renovated but very old. Today we have a developer specialized in building new popular homes at a fair price. Our company has the purpose of offering a product of easy acquisition of financing that will fit the budget of low-income families with the competitive advantage of being a new property.
In addition to my training in architecture and business management, I have some specializations that I want to apply in our units in the future. I have MBA in projects for work environments, training in coach, behavioral profile analysis, and training in neuroscience applied to architecture by neuroarqacademy, the first Brazilian academy of neuroscience applied to architecture where I am a member and also of anfa – academy of neuroscience for architecture.
With the pandemia, I felt the need to seek mental balance to overcome the unimaginable we were living. I needed to be well and help my family be well, and we overcome this pandemia together. And because we stay at home without being able to go out, the pandemia built me awareness of how much the physical environment can influence our life and especially our physical and mental health. There is no neutral environment, or it affects you for your well-being or for your ill-being, even without feeling it, our brain receives the stimulus of colors, smells, shapes, and sounds, and that is something we do not control. I have been studying about the effects that built environments can have on the brain through neuroscientific evidence since 2019.
I am research coordinator for a volunteer study group in Brazil, and in 2021 our work was chosen to be exhibited at a neuroarchitect conference. Our work was through a social action in a hospital in the sector of children who suffered sexual abuse. In this action made by several professionals who donated their time and knowledge, we were able to evaluate the perception of hospital employees before and after the changes in the work environments inside the hospital that we made based on neuroscientific evidence, and the result was incredible. We may make another report just to talk about these results. It would be awesome.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The path could have been easier if it was not for the pandemic. She delayed our results in the company. But beyond that, what I feel most is the challenge to speak English. I want to interact more with American culture, have American friends. My fight today is to learn to speak English.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business?
MISSION – Committed to building better spaces to live. Our mission is to plan and execute more human-built environments with quality, safety, and beauty to impact on the good being and in the quality of life of its users.
VISION – To be among the most credible American companies in its area of activity;
To be recognized for improving the quality of life of customers;
To be recognized for being a reference in the Single-Family Home segment;
VALUES – Humanity, ethics, ethics, and transparency;
Focus on customer satisfaction;
Constant learning;
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
I learned to take care of my mind and body because I understood that we have no control of anything but ourselves. That’s what makes us have quality of life. The ability to live well despite adversities.
Feelings are not conventional perceptions of the body but hybrid. There is will as much in the body as in the brain. ” We are sensitive creatures that think and thinking creatures that feel” – book – feel & know Antonio Damasio
Contact Info:
- Instagram: arq_ivifogaca ; four_rf4
Image Credits
studio s3d
