CAC Students Receive “Women in Engineering Scholarship”

By Angela Askey, Executive Director Public Relations and Marketing

Karen Banda and Rebecca Olivera have been named recipients of the “Women in Engineering Scholarship” at Central Arizona College.

Banda is from Casa Grande, AZ. She began her time at CAC taking dual enrollment classes in high school. Following her graduation from CAC in December 2023, she transferred to Arizona State University (ASU) to complete a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. She anticipates graduating from ASU in 2026.

“I attended CAC because of the availability of the associate degree that had a computer science pathway as well as activities like the balloon class. Thank you to Dr. Noravian for her efforts to make these options available, especially in areas where there aren’t as many options for STEM/computer science classes and activities in middle school and high school like there are in other areas in the valley,” stated Banda. She added, “Remembering my first engineering course, Introduction to Engineering, I was the only girl on the roster. It’s gotten better over the semesters, but I still think it’s amazing to have this kind of scholarship available to us. Often, we can be discouraged by that ratio, feeling excluded, or feeling like you don’t know as much, but it is important to know how much you can bring to the table in this field, not only from technical skills, but also just having a different perspective. Not knowing enough is not the problem, not knowing when to be curious and ask about stuff is.”

Olivera, who is from Phoenix, wasn’t sure if she wanted to pursue a college degree after high school. Following a summer math boot camp at CAC, she decided to officially enroll at CAC. She stated, “I ended up having a great time with my professors and peers.” She graduated from CAC in Fall 2023 and transferred to ASU to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (Software Engineering) at ASU. She plans to complete her degree in spring 2026.

Olivera explains, “In an engineering project class with Dr. Noravian and Ben Kerns, I worked with my colleague Rebecca Luma on developing a Task Management Application for two semesters. Our work involved integrating concepts from current/previous courses taken, as well as conducting additional research. As a result, we will have a fully functional application that enables users to easily add, delete, and edit tasks by the end of Spring 2024.”