Lourdes Villa still sounds a little surprised when she says it out loud: Two years ago, she was a bookseller in Greensboro. Now, she is helping power Spanish translation inside Mylow Companion, the Lowe’s associate app designed to support customer service in stores.
A 2026 Launchpad graduate, Villa said the work feels personal. Her parents speak Spanish, and she thinks about what it means for families like hers to walk into a store and get help without scrambling for a translator.
For Villa, Spanish is not an “extra” skill. It is part of her toolkit, alongside the coding foundation she built and the product work she has grown into. She joined Launchpad in September 2024 as a software engineer, then shifted toward product management after a rotation sparked her interest.
That pivot led her back to the work she cared about most: building tools that help people.
Before Lowe’s, Villa worked at Barnes & Noble, taking on more responsibility but feeling uncertain about her future.
“I knew it wasn’t where I wanted to be,” she said.
She began researching tech careers and took a risk on a coding boot camp apprenticeship.
“I knew if I didn't take that giant step for myself, I wasn’t going to get out of that one spot,” she said.
The next step on that path was Lowe’s Launchpad program. Launchpad, launched in 2022, was created to strengthen Lowe’s tech talent pipeline and support the company’s broader omnichannel transformation. The program offers full-time roles and removes a four-year degree requirement as a barrier, encouraging candidates with certifications and relevant experience in areas including software engineering, product design, information security, data analytics, data engineering and product management.
Once accepted, participants complete orientation to Lowe’s business and tech processes, an eight-week skills boot camp, two team rotations, and a final placement aligned with career goals.
To date, more than 298 people have graduated from Launchpad with a 98% graduation rate, and participants have contributed more than 800 hours of community service.
Villa is proudest when she talks about what Spanish translation could mean for customers and families like hers. Her parents live in Mexico now, but she tells them about her work. She is the oldest of five daughters, and she said being the first in her family to work in a corporate environment has been a surprise for everyone.
She also wants the impact to reach beyond her own family. When language becomes a barrier, even simple errands can feel heavier, she said. A tool that helps an associate communicate clearly can change the experience in a way customers remember.
Two years ago, Villa said she did not have a five-year plan. Now, when she thinks about what could come next, she keeps coming back to the same thing: staying close to work that helps people.
