Fabiola Forli Venegas, left, at the SBVC Student Services Building construction site

Student Fabiola Forli Venegas can say she literally helped build San Bernardino Valley College. 

She was given not one, but two internships with McCarthy Building Companies, which is constructing SBVC’s Student Services Building, slated for completion in Spring 2027. Over the course of six weeks, she watched as walls and the roof went up and plumbing and electricity were installed. 

“It was beautiful to see how the building was developing from design,” said Forli Venegas, who is two classes from her associate’s degree in architecture and environmental design and has transferred to Cal Poly Pomona to study landscape architecture. 

Her journey to SBVC started in Venezuela, where she worked and took management classes. She stayed home after her second child was born. After living in her father’s native Italy, the family moved to the United States and her husband got a job in Yucaipa. Forli Venegas, who speaks Spanish and Italian, enrolled in local ESL classes in 2015 to “polish” her English. 

In 2022, she decided to go back to school to study “something I can do remotely,” and it was difficult at first because “I was the older one,” she said. But her fellow students were patient and helpful. She joined the construction management club, received scholarships, and made the Fall 2025 Dean’s List. 

A professor connected her with the McCarthy internship, and she worked on the Student Services Building’s pre-construction phase in summer 2025. A year later, McCarthy asked her to return for another internship, which had her focus on mockups, safety, design, and scheduling. 

Looking back, Forli Venegas “can’t be more grateful to San Bernardino Valley College,” she said. “I recommend to any person who wants to improve their education, is a parent, or has experience in working, to come here. They guide you.” 

She is thrilled to have the chance to be a college student again, and feels like a “little kid. I’m so happy.”