Diana Trujillo started her journey when she travelled from Colombia the USA with no English and just $300 in her pocket. “As a little girl, I saw the women in my family give up a lot. It gave me the tenacity that I needed to say ‘I’m not going to give up on my dream. I want to be out there looking back in, showing my family that women have value, that women matter.’”
She took any job she could get, working nights, housekeeping, and cleaning bathrooms, in order to put herself through community college. Eventually, Diana transferred to the University of Florida, where she majored in aerospace engineering. She later became NASA Flight Director and helped design the rover’s robotic arm, which now collects rock samples on Mars.