Victoria Njoku

Stanford University

Chemistry/PreMed

I was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, and lived there until I was 14 years old. In Nigeria, there were very limited educational opportunities and ongoing civil insurrection. In 1998, my parents applied for the Immigration Lottery for the United States to give us an opportunity for education and we won the Lottery. We came to the United States and moved to South Central Los Angeles. Economically, we "survived" with everyone in the family working as hard as they could.

An aunt encouraged me to find a program for gifted students. I applied for the Gifted Magnet Program at Crenshaw High School and was accepted. Even though I initially had significant problems with the English language, I graduated number one in my class and was the valedictorian. I was accepted to Stanford University in the Chemistry Department. In the Summer of 2002, the Fund helped me find an internship in DNA research at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The Fund obtained a mentor for me, Ross Jaffee, M.D., who is a venture capitalist with Versant Ventures. I was welcomed into his family and he helped me with my resume, career planning and networking with individuals in chemistry, research and medicine. He has taken me with his family to educational, cultural and social events. He helped me obtain an interview with Genentech.

In the Summer of 2003, I worked at Genentech in pharmaceutical research. My work at Genentech and my time with Dr. Jaffe sparked an interest in becoming a doctor. In the Summer of 2004, I worked with Paul Wender, Ph.D., in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford. For two of my summers in college, The Fund arranged free housing with Mary Fitzgerald, R.N., another mentor to me and a nurse at Stanford Children's Hospital. Currently, I am a senior at Stanford, majoring in Chemistry and minoring in Economics with a goal of attending medical school.

My brothers Collins and Emmanuel are also scholars in The Fund. Collins is a premed junior at UC Davis. Emmanuel is a freshman at UC Davis. My involvement with The Fund has helped me, my brothers and my sister realize that we have opportunities that would not have been possible without the guidance of so many kind people. We all want to succeed in college and are working hard toward this goal. We will return the help we have been given by helping other students in The Fund in the future.