Before coming to MIT, Victoria was a student at University Laboratory High School in Urbana, IL. Her senior year independent study involved developing effective silver deposition techniques that could be implemented in local high school chemistry classes. The goal was to create a uniform silver monolayer on a glass plate, allowing for etching and electrode implementation. She was first introduced to the Synthetic Neurobiology group through a seminar freshman year at MIT and became interested in the lab's goal of engineering novel devices for treatment of mental disorders. After joining the lab in the spring of 2008, she helped with behavioral testing for cognition experiments.