How Veronica Miller Charts Her Personal Path at NVIDIA

When she was 5 years outdated, Veronica Miller (née Teklai) and her household left their homeland of Eritrea, within the Horn of Africa, to flee an ongoing warfare with Ethiopia and create a brand new life within the U.S.

She grew up in East Orange, New Jersey, watching others decide her dad and mom and switch them away from jobs they have been certified for due to their look, their accented English or their unfamiliar names.

After working within the delivery business for 20 years, Miller’s dad ultimately turned a New York Metropolis cab driver, an often-dangerous job within the Nineteen Eighties. Her mother, regardless of incomes a pc science diploma within the U.S., skilled to change into a house well being aide, the place jobs have been extra out there.

“My dad and mom’ resilience and braveness made my life doable,” Miller mentioned.

After graduating from Ramapo School of New Jersey with a level in worldwide enterprise, Miller labored at massive automotive firms in consumer help, manufacturing help and mission administration.

Now working as a technical program supervisor in product safety at NVIDIA, she appears like her household’s journey has come full circle.

“It’s the distinction of my life being right here at NVIDIA: I’m the proudest refugee,” she mentioned.

In her position, Miller features like a conductor in an orchestra. She works with engineers to bridge gaps and perceive challenges to outline options — all the time attempting to create alternatives to show a “no” right into a “sure” by collaboration.

At NVIDIA, Miller appears like she might be herself, serving to her thrive. She now not feels the strain to evolve to slot in, permitting her creativity to circulate freely and remedy issues.

“Beforehand in my profession, I by no means wore my hair curly. After somebody as soon as requested to the touch my curly hair, I believed it could be simpler to make myself seem like everybody else. I assumed it was the easiest way to let my work be the main target as a substitute of my hair,” she mentioned. “NVIDIA is the primary employer that inspired me to deliver my full self to work.”

Exterior of labor, Veronica and her husband, Nathan, are obsessed with paying it ahead and serving to native youth in Trenton, New Jersey. Collectively, they’ve developed The Miller Household Basis to assist with group wants, together with training. The inspiration’s scholarship fund has donated $20,000 to low-income highschool college students to supply help for faculty tuition and profession mentorship.

“I actually imagine anybody might get right here. There wasn’t anybody that confirmed me the trail. It was perception in myself, a ton of analysis and countless onerous work,” she mentioned. “We’re in a particular place the place my husband and I may give the subsequent era a number of the monetary help and profession steerage we didn’t have.”

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