By Richard Zagrzecki
When Jeylen Arteaga celebrated her 21st birthday last year, her wish list wasn’t what a typical college student asks for.
She wanted a miniature pig.
Her family knew her heart was set on having one for a pet, and so they pitched in and bought one.
“I named her Chanel because she is very sassy. She knows how to sit, stay and jump. She is amazing,” said Arteaga, a senior majoring in interior architecture at the University of Houston.
Chanel – who is part Vietnamese pot-bellied and part Juliana – is a lot more work than owning a dog, Arteaga said, because pigs are driven by a desire for food and will try to get into the refrigerator and kitchen cabinets in their never-ending quest.
“They are really smart animals. So you have to baby proof your home to keep them from getting into things,” she said.
Arteaga will be graduating in May, then plans on applying to graduate school. For the past several months, she has been a communications student employee with Facilities/Construction Management.
In that role, she handles a lot of the design aspect of communications for the department, such as for flyers, banners and other items that require working in programs like InDesign and Adobe Illustrator. One of her duties involves putting together the monthly Facilities employee newsletter.
In early August, UH Facilities hosted a two-day Facilities Forum for all of the facilities departments at the four universities within the UH System. Those who attended were given a coin-shaped disc as a keepsake that Arteaga played an integral role in creating. is
“I was in charge of designing a lot of the different components and handouts involved with the forum, including the disc that was distributed,” she said. “I made the logo on it and organized its design.”
After graduating from Cypress Springs High School in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, Arteaga chose to attend UH for a number of reasons. One is that it is close to her family’s home. The biggest reason, though, is that the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design offers an interior architecture program, which is what she wanted to pursue.
She knew she wanted to be an architect as far back as the eighth grade. Then when she got to high school, she took an introductory architecture class, which cemented her decision to follow that career path.
“I decided to give the class a try and ended up loving it,” Arteaga said.
Besides the student employee job and her studies, she is involved with the Interior Architecture Student Association and currently serves as its secretary. She also is in the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design Student Council.
She likes to play video games with her younger brothers. She also knows how to play the violin, and was a member of her high school’s orchestra for four years. For the past year, she has been teaching herself how to ride Penny boards and longboards – smaller and larger versions of skateboards.
“A Penny board is only around 12 inches long, but it is easy to take around campus,” she said. “I have had my fair share of falls. I have landed on my butt a few times.”