Friends, Fears, Fulfillment
Valarie Franklin
Licensed 2014
Failure is something that many people fear. It can hinder people from pursuing their dreams. For Valarie Franklin, her fears actually propelled her forward. For her, getting her license represented a milestone in her architecture career that was a personal requirement. The path to get her license was long, but her determination fueled her toward this accomplishment despite her fear of not accomplishing her goal.
Valarie’s architecture story starts with her befriending architecture students while she was studying political science at Tuskegee University. As a kid, a life like Claire Huxtable’s was what she aspired to, so she started out wanting to become a lawyer. However, during her first year of college, she was often helping her architecture friends with their projects. Growing up, she knew nothing about design as a career choice. Eventually, because of her design skills and interest in architecture, she changed her major to architecture. She considers those college friends her first mentors.
After changing majors, Valarie completed her degree. During her time in college, she also married and had a daughter. She moved to San Antonio for her first job after graduation.
Valarie started testing as soon as she was eligible. At that time internship hours had to be completed before testing. At work, Valarie was primarily tasked with doing renderings. Because of this, she did not have a lot of guidance from her firm in other areas required by the intern development program. Approximately three years after graduation, she started with the structures test. She scored a pass on her first exam. Then, life events started to become a factor in Valarie’s plan to get through the exams as quickly as possible. Her husband experienced mental health challenges and Valarie became a caregiver while juggling work and motherhood. This forced her to stop testing. Recognizing that her rolling clock was going to cause her passed exams to expire, Valarie contacted NCARB and explained her circumstances. She was able to get an extension. One of the mantras she emphasizes is “don’t be afraid to ask for help.” Valarie eventually divorced and moved closer to family in Nashville. By that time over ten years had passed since she had last taken an exam.
Valarie restarted her testing in 2010. She also remarried and had two more children. This time she had a lot of family support and a village surrounding her. She also credits having a lot of field experience to helping her answer tough exam questions.
Upon restarting, she took the hardest exam first realizing that would restart her rolling clock. Her final exam took three tries to pass, but she managed to pass it in the final six months before her rolling clock was set to expire. Valarie learned during her exam process that failure is part of the journey, and it is ok to fail as long as you try your best. With support from her family and friends, she earned licensure in 2014.
Valarie is now at a firm not only encourages licensure but also requires it for advancement. She is mentoring others through the process at her firm and in her leadership of her local NOMA chapter.
Despite life setbacks, Valarie was able to face her fear of failure and succeed. She is building on that success to propel her career.
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Learn more about Valarie here.