When Victoria Moore ’12 was a child, she never saw an engineer who looked like she did.

Now an engineer at Consumers Energy, Moore volunteers at the Lily Missions Center After School Program in Jackson, Michigan, a program that provides tutoring and mentoring to preschool to sixth-grade students. The Women of Color STEM Conference in Detroit recently recognized Moore for her work promoting STEM and awarded her the Technology Rising Star Award.

“I had never seen an engineer or doctor who looked like me growing up,” she said. “My goal is to be that for a little girl or little boy in the African American community to show them it’s possible.”

Moore, who studied Electrical Engineering at Kettering, is the Network Operations Center engineer at Consumers Energy, and she’s responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the energy management programs for commercial and industrial customers. Her role includes vendor management, supply chain operations, data analysis, and customer support.

Giving back is an important part of Moore’s life. She has served on Consumers’ Women’s Engineering Network steering committee, and she’s a member of the resource group and the Minority Advisory Panel. Moore also is the secretary for the National Society of Black Engineers Detroit Professionals Chapter, one of the largest student-governed organizations in the United States.

Raised by a single mother in a low-income household, she credits her success to a fantastic support system of teachers and community members who helped her get to Kettering University.

“I can never pay back that assistance I received. My goal is to pay it forward,” she said.

The spirit of giving back and community involvement is what led her to Kettering. Moore attended The Roeper School, a private school for gifted students in Birmingham, Michigan. One of her teachers thought Kettering would be a good fit for Moore, who liked the smaller learning environment at Roeper school.

Moore loved Kettering’s focus on community. Through the Office of Multicultural Student Initiatives (OMSI), she learned about the many opportunities to be involved with Greek Life and organizations such as the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers, and Model UN. Moore also volunteered at the Flint Children’s Museum to teach children about science and electricity.

She noted the support from the OMSI and Associate Dean of Students L.B. McCune was crucial to her success today.

“Kettering taught me how to be a problem solver and how to use every aspect of myself to contribute to solving the problem,” she said. “It’s not just knowing the answer by the book.”