Victor Moreno ’97

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Victor Moreno says he was given a second chance in life, and he is certainly making the most of it! In 1990, he was serving a sentence for drug charges; in 1996, he was serving his community and UCLA in profound ways. Last year, the Honors Program honored Victor with the prestigious Richard Carlton Meeker, Jr. Memorial Scholarship for scholastic excellence, creativity in research and outstanding service to the university and community.

Moreno received the Leadership Alliance Scholarship for a study examining friendship interactions and differences in elementary school children. This current research is conducted as part of a year-long thesis for the departmental honors program in psychology. Additionally, his honors course work has included approaches to behavioral intervention with developmentally disabled children with autism and a study on preschool to third grade children with developmental psychopathology. He has been accepted into the Developmental Disabilities Immersion Program, which is a two-quarter program studying developmental disabilities in the community and at UCLA.

Moreno has volunteered with the Fred Jordan Los Angeles Mission, which serves and feeds the homeless. He has worked at the Wiley Center for Behavioral Change and at the River Community Rehabilitation Center. At UCLA, Moreno has contributed in a number of ways, including the Guardian Angels, a group devoted to helping new Alumni Scholars make the transition to UCLA; serving as volunteer advisor with the Community College Outreach Program, which is designed for prospective transfer students coming from underrepresented community colleges in the Los Angeles area; working with the UCLA Alumni Experience Program, serving selected freshman and transfer student applicants; and has been a UCLA Honors Program advisor for the transfer Alliance and Academic Advancement Orientation programs, which serve incoming community college transfer students.

Moreno has said, “My goal is to plant a seed of hope within as many lives as I can through a framework of constant love, dedication and hard work. In every person I have worked with, whether they were a disabled child or an adult, I see a part of my past. From my past mistakes to my future accomplishments, I hope to be a model for others to learn from and one day pass on to them this gift given to me – a second chance in life.”