Program Executive Dr. Yaítza Luna-Cruz

“My mom had to leave school after 9th grade to support her family, but she always emphasized the importance of education. And with a lot of sacrifices, got us an encyclopedia in Spanish, ‘Enciclopedia de Las Ciencias’. By getting that encyclopedia for us, without knowing it, my mom was my first mentor because she introduced me to science. So that’s what helped fall in love with physics.

“I was the first of many things. I was the only one in my whole class that decided to study physics at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.