Meet the ViperBots Faculty and Mentors

While attending the University of California, Irvine, Mr. Adrian pursued and earned a B.A. in Political Science. After graduation, he found himselff teaching in a challenging inner-city school in one of the poorest areas of Orange County and California. Naturally, he fell in love with the world of teaching and those students.

As an educator, he believes that the classroom environment prepares students for real life situations. Hard work, thinking at high levels, having standards and reachable goals, belief in oneself, and enjoying life are important things that he model for his students. 

Ms. Rouhiainen graduated from Southwestern University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education with a focus on physics and mathematics. She has been teaching at Vandegrift since 2018 and currently teaches Physics and AP Physics 1.

Ms. Rouhiainen is excited to be a part of the ViperBots Robotics Program as this program allows students to collaborate in order to problem solve and create together. She started in 2022 as faculty mentor to QuadX and she is excited for a great year.

Ms. Stevenson was a foreign exchange student to Argentina her Junior year of high school. She has a BA in English from Hardin Simmons University and a Masters in Spanish from Colorado University at Denver.

Ms. Stevenson loves being a part of ViperBots because she sees students outside of class being themselves. She experiences the creative process and growth with her team and gets to see them handle real world problems, each with unique perspectives.

Mr. Meeks earned his B.A. degree in History from The University of Memphis and a B.S. degree in Elementary Education from Crichton College. He earned his Master of Arts in Education degree from

Union University. In Memphis, he began his teaching career in 1999 as an elementary teacher. He worked as a Reading teacher in a computer-based reading program called READ 180.

In Dallas during the 2016-2019 school year, Mr. Meeks coached several afterschool tutoring classes and computer-based intervention programs to bridge the achievement gap among students at his elementary school. He’s excited to be apart of the Robotics program at Vandegrift to help our amazing students participate in the Robotics events this school year.

Lacey Zvada studied at the University of California, Irvine where she earned a bachelor's degree in theatre with a minor in education. She had always wanted to be a teacher and joined Teach for America in their 2013 corps. Lacey found herself teaching special education in Las Vegas. While there she earned a Master's Degree in Special Education at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada. Lacey moved to Austin 1 year ago and loves teaching students with disabilities here at Vandegrift High School.

   Mrs. Zvada is so excited to be a part of ViperBots FRC program. Robotics incorporates so many important real world skills like problem solving and collaboration. It is amazing what students in robotics accomplish and learn and she can't wait to see how her students grow this year!

Luke DeWitt graduated from Olivet College in 2017 with a Bachelors in Marketing and Business Administration. During his time at the "O", he was President of the Marketing and Advertising club, captain of the men's volleyball team, and was voted "Marketing Student of The Year" by the Business department for his work in developing and presenting a marketing plan for local businesses. After graduation, Luke immediately started coaching volleyball collegiately for 4 years. He now works in Business Development at Veryable which is a Gigafund backed start-up that consults operations for manufacturers. This is his second season mentoring and it's been wonderful mixing his strengths of marketing, leadership, and competition together to help students find and develop their passions. 

Ben Helgeson graduated from UT Austin in 2017 with Bachelor degrees in Physics – Space Sciences and Astronomy.  He is currently an Engineering Scientist at Applied Research Laboratories, responsible for Precision Pointing Determination for a research satellite called ICESat-2.  His job is primarily algorithm development and data analysis. 

Ben has been involved in FIRST one way or another for about 13 years, and also helped Michael start Valor back in 2017.  He mainly does manufacturing and assembly, teaching the students how to safely and effectively use the tools and machinery in the shop.  It’s a very rewarding experience being able to help the students learn and develop new skills that will help them in their future. 

Jan Helgeson is a Solutions Architect at Alchemy Technology Group. He’s focused on building solutions for our customers using Robot Process Automation and managing windows deployments in SCCM.

Jan was on an FRC team from 2007-2011 (the same team as Michael Ray) and joined Valor as a mentor in 2019.  He enjoys mentoring and working with students and helping them solve the unique challenges in FIRST. As a student, FIRST taught Mr. Helgeson many skills that he still uses and were invaluable to getting him to his present role.  On Valor, he manages the Software team, where it is his responsibility to ensure that all of the robot's hardware and electrical systems are effectively controlled.

Madison Zamora graduated from Brigham Young University in 2017 with a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering. She also completed a year of research and graduate study in Mechanical Engineering and Oceanography at UC San Diego. Madison then joined the education field and taught high school math and science for three years. During this time, she was introduced to the world of FIRST! This will be her second full season with Valor. She loves working with the students and guiding them through the engineering design process. Robotics gives them firsthand experience in each aspect of the process, though she personally loves seeing students think through the failures and set backs and then later celebrate the successes!