Violeta Crow

PROFILE: Violeta Crow and her classmate and fellow Scholar Aldo Garcia became the media darlings of the Bay Area press corps in the spring of 2010. It was not a tough story to sell: they are two young, vibrant, and brilliant engineering students, both immigrants from Mexico who came north of the border to attend college and both landed scholarships from the Foundation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS8q9xdSYCE. But there’s much more to Violeta than was covered in that story. It doesn’t discuss her volunteering and mentoring at a local middle school, or her love of dance - she works as a janitor at a nearby dance academy in exchange for dance lessons. Nor does it talk about Violeta’s fascination with robotics, an area of engineering she became enamored with quite by accident. “All my life the question was ‘how can I help others and make a difference in the world?’ The answer was right in front of me: through robotics. By using machines to aid in medical studies and procedures I might have the chance to save lives.” Violeta’s fierce desire to learn is not a shock to her parents. When she was four-years-old in Mexico she taught herself how to read and write. “I would choose a letter and ask my mother how to pronounce it, then I would circle it throughout a magazine and repeat the pronunciation.”

INSPIRATION: Cathy Lipe, the Math Engineering Science Achievement Program Advisor at Cañada College, inspired Violeta to think outside the box. “Her mentorship has opened many doors for me. She encouraged me to take leadership positions and she helped me to gather the necessary resources to start new organizations and to navigate through the system. She believed in me since the day I met her and she has been by my side throughout my journey, sharing with me her wisdom and supporting my endeavors.”

ASPIRATION: After earning a degree in computer engineering, Violeta would like to become a researcher in the field of robotics.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Being a math-related major, Violeta was not expected to do well in her humanities honors classes. She was so engaged by the topics discussed in the English and arts classes that both of her reseach projects were recognized and selected for the Honors Symposium.

ACCOLADES: The top honors for Violeta include the President’s Student Leadership Award, Humanities and Social Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award, Associated Students of Cañada College Team Leadership and Outstanding Academic Achievement Award, and 1st Place in the VEX Robotics intercollegiate competition.

INTERESTING FACT: Violeta knows at least the basics of fourteen different styles of dance.