Scholar since
2023

Scholarship received
Jason Pettigrew Memorial ARE Scholarship

Education

University of Southern California

University of Puerto Rico

Hometown
Dallas, TX (Originally from San Juan, PR)

Born into a hardworking family in Orocovis and San Juan, Puerto Rico, Oswaldo Rivera-Ortiz has combined the best of two callings – architecture and teaching, for the past two decades. He earned his bachelor’s in environmental design in his homeland at the University of Puerto Rico and got his master’s in architecture at the University of Southern California, while traveling the world. But he graduated into the Great Recession, and the twists of life led him into teaching. After twelve years working as a bilingual elementary school teacher and an architecture, urban planning and interiors instructor at Richardson High School and CityLab High School in Dallas, Texas, he joined Stantec at their Plano office. He now is a project manager designing K-12 and post-secondary learning environments. He also coordinates internship programs with high school students, organizes K-12 design camps and a college fair with AIA Dallas, helped create and acts as juror of the TX Society of Architects’ Design Challenge for secondary students, and manages a network of over 100 high school architecture programs across Texas. Beyond these, his biggest blessings are his adventures with his 4 little kids and wife, across the US, and back home in Puerto Rico.