2024 Stevens Alumni Award Recipient

The Stevens Alumni Award recognizes and shows appreciation for alumni who have made a lasting impact on the Stevens community. This prestigious award is granted each year to a Stevens graduate who has exhibited an enduring commitment and devotion to Stevens.

Victoria Velasco ’04

Victoria Velasco ’04 has been deeply involved with Stevens for more than half her life — as a student and an alumna. She has contributed two decades of consistent service to the Stevens community, helping usher in a new era of collaboration between the Stevens Alumni Association and the university. As a widely respected alumni volunteer and leader, Velasco has served as SAA president for five years, a member of the Stevens Board of Trustees for seven years and in numerous committee leadership appointments. She is especially passionate about her service as a torchbearer for her alma mater, inspired by generations of alumni volunteers who came before her. In each of her roles, Velasco has strived to make her involvement impactful. Throughout her years of service, she has been instrumental in shaping the trajectory of the SAA and advancing its goals.

Velasco arrived at Stevens following in her sister’s footsteps. Afterwards, her brother joined, as well. Each sibling found their space in the campus community, forging lifelong friendships and engaging in academic and extracurricular opportunities. As an undergraduate, Velasco served as a resident assistant in Hayden Hall, editor-in-chief of The Link, president of Omicron Pi Sorority, and member of the Khoda Senior Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi, Gear and Triangle, Epsilon Mu Eta, and the Newman Association.

After graduating from Stevens with a bachelor’s degree in engineering management, Velasco prepared herself for a career in education through New Jersey’s alternate route certification program and began teaching AP calculus and multivariable mathematics at Fair Lawn High School in Bergen County. She later earned a master's degree in educational leadership from Montclair State University. In her teaching career, her Stevens experience and network has provided valuable insight in helping her to advise students who aspire to a career in STEM.

Velasco’s first formal alumni volunteer role was as Young Alumni Trustee of the Stevens Board of Trustees (2004-2006). In the years that followed, she served in several SAA leadership positions including president, 1st and 2nd vice president, treasurer, and decade representative. Velasco has also chaired the Young Alumni Committee, the Long-Range Policy and Planning Committee, the Activities Committee, the Budget and Finance Committee, and the Executive Committee. In 2009, Velasco was presented with the Harold R. Fee Alumni Achievement Award for her dedication and service to the Association, Stevens and the alumni community.

Velasco holds the distinction of the longest tenure as Association President, completing five years in the role (2017-2022). She is only the third woman to serve at the Association’s helm in its 148-year history. Throughout those years, she worked closely with dozens of alumni volunteers and members of the Stevens alumni engagement team to coordinate, transition, and implement the new governance structure provided by the major overhaul of the SAA Constitution and Bylaws. She contributed countless hours guiding her fellow alumni in transitioning governance structures, implementing new systems, recruiting alumni to new roles within the new organizational framework, and connecting with Stevens alumni from all decades to build strong bonds across generations.

Currently, Velasco serves as the Nominations Committee Chair and Recent Past President Representative on the Association Board. In any role she accepts, Velasco works to further align the Association and Stevens in the pursuit of deeper alumni engagement that brings together the entire community.

Velasco accepted the torch and continues to keep it burning bright with the hopes of passing it on to a new generation of alumni leaders. Stevens Institute of Technology and the Stevens Alumni Association are profoundly grateful for her vision, tireless effort, and sincere affection for her alma mater.

For her extraordinary service to the university and her fellow Stevens alumni, we recognize Victoria Velasco from the Class of 2004, with the Stevens Alumni Award.