Noel Rojas Earns VSU College of Science and Mathematics Excellence Award

Noel Alfredo Rojas Galviz of Valdosta, Georgia, is the recipient of the Fall 2022 President’s Award for Academic Excellence for the College of Science and Mathematics at Valdosta State University. He graduates summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems, and a Minor in Applied Statistics. He previously earned an Associate of Arts from VSU in 2020.

VALDOSTA — Noel Alfredo Rojas Galviz of Valdosta, Georgia, is the recipient of the Fall 2022 President’s Award for Academic Excellence for the College of Science and Mathematics at Valdosta State University.

The President’s Award for Academic Excellence is presented to a high-performing graduating student in each of VSU’s six colleges — Harley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, College of the Arts, James L. and Dorothy H. Dewar College of Education and Human Services, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and College of Science and Mathematics.

Rojas will be recognized during VSU’s 234^th Commencement at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 10, on the Front Lawn. He will graduate summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems, and a Minor in Applied Statistics. He previously earned an Associate of Arts from VSU in 2020.

“I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, but worked hard to learn English and come to the United States,” he said. “When I decided to enter university here, I knew I wanted to excel, but I didn't know I would do this well and earn such a high honor. This means the world to me because my family, especially my mother and father, can see their son live out his American dream and be proud of me. Unfortunately, they are not in the U.S., but I know they are proud and will be even prouder when they see it all happening thanks to technology. I am so thankful for the experiences VSU has given me and for the people I have met. If young Noel could see where adult Noel is now, he would jump at the first chance to get it all started.”

As a student committed to academic, research, and service excellence, Rojas took full advantage of experiential and exploratory learning opportunities available at VSU. He won first place at Hackathon 2021, an annual software development competition hosted by the Department of Computer Science and Azalea Health. He worked as a computer science tutor on campus and as a volunteer website developer for Habitat for Humanity.

Through research, Rojas created new knowledge, which he shared at local and state conferences. He presented “COVID-19 Respiratory Viruses, Cell Surface Molecules, and You” at the 2021 VSU Undergraduate Research Symposium and shared his work on the development of jGrader, a tool for automating the grading of homework, at the 2021 Georgia Academy of Science.

Rojas was a founding member of Alpha Epsilon Kappa, an off-campus fraternity that became a nontraditional student group on campus. He earned repeated spots on the Dean’s List.

During Summer 2022, Rojas completed a software engineer internship with Earnest.

“I am excited to announce that I have accepted a full-time position as a full stack software engineer for Earnest,” he said. “So, my plans at the moment are to continue working with them. I also plan on pursuing a master’s degree in either machine learning, DevOps, software engineering, or web development. My career goals are vast. I will continue to acquire new skills and shape my current ones so that I stay informed and up to date about the changing technologies and languages in the field of computer science. I am also working towards achieving senior software engineer status within a large company in the next three years.”

His supportive family includes wife Jessica Vaquerano Rojas, father Noel José Rojas Garcia, mother Josefa Marina de Rojas, siblings, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and dogs Cosmos Aldebaran Rojas and Comet Rojas.