Valeria Viteri-Pflucker is a recent graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU), where she majored in physics and minored in mathematics, religion and history. At IWU's School of Music, she also participated in wind ensemble, pep band, opera pit and more as extracurricular activities. Throughout her student career, Valeria has been active in numerous STEM societies, including the Society of Physics Students (SPS), Pi Mu Epsilon (a mathematics honor society), and SPIE. Valeria has just begun the next step of her academic journey at the University of Rochester to pursue a Ph.D. in optics.