Ms. Cruz, and my journey with Programming by Victoria

Ms. Cruz, and my journey with Programming by Victoria - July 2026 Scholarship Essay

My team and I were sitting at the table, nervously awaiting the results. When the judge announced “SilentSupport,” we jumped up and ran to the stage. Ms. Cruz followed, snapping a picture of us with our prize. We won 2nd Place in the Career and Technical Education App Challenge. I was surprised but overjoyed. At that moment, I knew STEM was the field for me.
I met Ms. Cruz my freshman year of high school. She was my programming teacher for all four years. Before high school, I had no intention of becoming a programmer and knew little about programming or STEM. Of all my classes, programming was the hardest. I grew frustrated each time an error message popped up. I couldn’t drop the class; staying enrolled required it. Each year, the classes grew tougher. I didn’t pass the Python Certification freshman year or the AP Computer Science Principles exam sophomore year. Even worse at the time, it was the only class that I didn’t get an A in. For my 14 year old brain, this was devastating. Ms. Cruz often reminded me how few African American women are in STEM. That motivated me to change that narrative.

On the last day of school during my freshman year, Ms. Cruz invited me to join a student-led STEM club she sponsored. I accepted her invitation and joined the club my sophomore year of high school. This club provided the space for me to express how much I was struggling with the class. It was also the stepping stone into the STEM field for me. Ms. Cruz shared multiple STEM opportunities with us, including internships and competitions. It was through this club that I landed an IT summer internship during my senior year. It was also this club that encouraged me to attend tutoring, which led to me passing the AP Computer Science A exam during my junior year. I was ecstatic the day I opened up College Board and saw that my hard work paid off.

During my senior year, Ms. Cruz signed all the seniors in the programming class up for the CTE app challenge. After observing classrooms for a few weeks, we created SilentSupport. SilentSupport is an app where students could type in their questions anonymously, and their teacher could answer the questions for the class. After my team and I won, I realized that if I could achieve this goal, I could achieve many more things that once seemed impossible. Programming not only taught me patience but also delayed gratification. I applied to the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University as a Computer Science major and am expected to start in the Fall of 2026. I want to study Computer Science to develop solutions for the people in my community and in my future workplace, regardless of how small the problem may seem. After graduation, I would like to become a Software engineer to ensure that I fulfill this goal. I want to continue the path that Ms. Cruz inspired me to pursue.