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Hardware Engineer @ Amazon Leo · UPenn M&T: MechE × Wharton

Ava Martoma

Half designer, half engineer, fully curious.

Hi! I'm a mechanical engineering & business student at Penn. I love all things makerspace and hands-on :) Scroll to learn more about me!

Tools I reach for

  • SolidWorks
  • Fusion 360
  • ANSYS Fluent
  • Arduino
  • Python
  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • R
  • 3D Printing
  • Laser Cutting
  • Photoshop
  • Illustrator
  • Woodworking

Lately

What I'm listening to & building

What I've been listening to

On GitHub

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All repositories

Experience

Where I've been

drag / scroll →

May 2026 — Current

Amazon — Project Kuiper (Leo)

Hardware Development Engineer · Redmond, WA

  • Owned the end-to-end build of a Python/Flask dashboard consolidating satellite-antenna installation data across 94 built and ~200 planned sites — replacing spreadsheets with an as-built view for operations engineers and leadership.
  • Installed and tested a satellite-antenna system on-site in Texas, assembling the hardware alongside manufacturer Intellian.

Sep 2025 — Current

Kesem at Penn

Counselor · Philadelphia, PA

  • Selected as 1 of 48 counselors (100-member chapter) to mentor a cabin of 6–8-year-old girls at the free week-long summer camp for kids impacted by a parent’s cancer.
  • Raised ~$2,000 individually toward the Penn chapter’s ~$200K annual goal.

Sep 2025 — Current

Penn Women’s Club Squash

Co-Captain · Philadelphia, PA

  • Co-captained an 11-player club team to a #6 national finish, coordinating travel and play at nationals.
  • Organized 6 intercollegiate matches and managed a $300 budget — handling scheduling and logistics with other teams.

Jun 2018 — Aug 2025

KidsMates Inc.

Co-Founder · KidsSTEAM Project Manager · Web Developer · Boca Raton, FL

  • Co-founded a 501(c)(3) for children of incarcerated parents — raised $16K and partnered with 5+ organizations.
  • Led a national literacy drive distributing children’s books to federal prisons across 23 of 36 eligible states.
  • Designed and taught KidsSTEAM — free STEAM classes + 1:1 tutoring (ages 7–14).
  • Wrote the KidsMates Chronicle from age 12 — 15+ published interviews with advocates and researchers on parental incarceration; the nonprofit’s story was featured by Forbes and the Miami Herald.

Jun 2024 — Jul 2024

MITES (MIT)

Summer Scholar · Cambridge, MA

  • Daily classes in linear algebra, chemistry, physics, and architecture.
  • Presented a capstone architecture project at MIT; awarded the MITES Director’s Award.

Jun 2024 — Jul 2024

Duke University

Student Researcher — Prof. Zbigniew Kabala · Remote

  • Led a CFD study in ANSYS Fluent modeling aerodynamic drag across three 2023 passenger cars — quantifying 112–117% higher drag for the boxy Kia Soul vs. the sleeker Hyundai Elantra.
  • Authored a paper (under review): “Drag on Passenger Cars: CFD Analysis of Body Design Using ANSYS Fluent.”

Aug 2023 — Jun 2024

NYU Family-Based Justice Advisory Board

Steering Committee Advisory · Remote

  • Advised on family-based alternative sentencing that keeps families united during community-served sentences.

Jun 2020 — Jun 2024

Osborne Association

Youth Fellow · Remote

  • Ran month-long national awareness campaigns on the Youth Steering Committee.
  • Lobbied for legislation including NY’s “Proximity Bill” to keep incarcerated parents closer to family.

Jan 2023 — Nov 2023

Harvard/MIT Langer/Traverso Lab

Research Intern — Dr. Shriya Srinivasan · Remote

  • Conducted an in-depth literature review on engineering treatments for autonomic dysreflexia — a condition affecting up to 70% of patients with spinal-cord injuries above T6.
  • Evaluated endovascular baroreflex amplification (EVBA) devices and mechanical vs. electrical vagal-nerve stimulation to inform an implantable neuromodulation device.

Jun 2023 — Jul 2023

Ross Math Program

Summer Scholar · Columbus, OH

  • Six-week residential program in number theory and topology, taught by university faculty.

Jun 2023 — Jul 2023

OSU Belief in Engineering Groups Lab

Research Intern — Dr. Emily Dringenberg · Remote

  • Contributed to a paper on race and gender inequities in engineering.
  • Studied causal reasoning; built an annotated bibliography for publication.

Jun 2022 — Aug 2022

Put Me In!

Summer Intern · Remote

  • Analyzed e-commerce growth opportunities for a children’s sports nonprofit; presented financial models + a Porter’s Five Forces analysis to the CEO and investors.
  • Launched an e-commerce merchandise store from the findings — turning the analysis into a live revenue channel.

Mar 2021 — Jun 2021

Worth Rises

Criminal Justice Intern · Remote

  • Year-long fellowship on the prison industry.
  • Produced a thesis on the architectural challenges of prison design.

Education

2025 — 2029 (expected)

University of Pennsylvania (School of Engineering & Wharton)

B.S. Mechanical Engineering & B.S. Economics · Jerome Fisher M&T Program

Class of 2025

The Lawrenceville School

Lawrenceville, NJ


Communities

Programs, scholarships & fellowships

  • NCWIT Aspirations in Computing
  • Davidson Young Scholars

Amazon Future Engineer

Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship is Amazon's computer-science education and scholarship program. Being a part of this cohort has allowed me to meet so many interesting people, and I'm grateful for the opportunities it has given me. Through this program, I was able to participate and place in the Amazon AFE Hackathon. Learn more about my project here. Shoutout to Betty Beniamm and Emma Hanan, as well as everyone who makes the program happen!
About a dozen Amazon Future Engineer scholars crowded together on a rooftop at sunset, arms around each other, a city skyline and orange sky behind them.
AFE-organized BBQ at sunset

LinkedIn Possibilities in Tech

The LinkedIn Possibilities in Tech (PIT) Scholarship has been a defining part of my journey. PIT supports students from underrepresented backgrounds in tech by providing multi-year funding, mentorship, college-navigation support, and technical training. Beyond the professional development, it's the tight-knit community that makes this program so incredibly impactful.

During our first PIT Intensive at LinkedIn's Mountain View campus in June 2025, I quickly bonded with my cohort and gained invaluable wisdom from the upperclassmen mentors. (And yes, the highlight of that trip was definitely Top Golf!)

Returning a year later for the June 2026 Sophomore Summer Intensive felt like a reunion. I had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with and learn directly from my peers during our hackathon. Check out my LinkedIn Discover project to see what we built… and a huge shoutout to Pablo Najera, Tori Goyette, and Jocelyn Kuo for making LinkedIn PIT a reality!

A long marble table lined with rows of folded navy LinkedIn “Possibilities in Tech Scholarship” T-shirts, each paired with a green name tag listing a scholar’s name and college “Class of 2029” and a branded lip balm.
Welcome table — a shirt and name tag per scholar
Ava in a colorful floral top and wide-leg jeans, wearing a teal LinkedIn lanyard, sitting on a yellow bench beneath a large dark-blue glittered LinkedIn “in” logo mounted on the wall.
Badged in at the LinkedIn logo
Ava in a white dress and blue cardigan standing with a fellow scholar in front of the giant glossy blue LinkedIn “in” sculpture outside on the campus, a flowerbed at their feet.
The big blue “in” on campus
A LinkedIn campus lawn set up for an event: white peaked tents strung with festoon lights over artificial turf, a freestanding white “in” logo sign, a cornhole board, and patio tables under a bright blue sky.
The campus event lawn
The full scholarship cohort — about thirty students in lanyards — grouped around a LinkedIn host on a couch in a bright, window-lined space, LinkedIn screens glowing behind them.
The whole cohort
A student stands with a microphone asking a question during a session, seated scholars filling the lounge chairs around her and a LinkedIn-branded backpack on the floor in front.
Q&A during a session
A LinkedIn loft space with two wall screens reading “LinkedIn — 2025 Sophomore Hackathon”, a presenter with a microphone by the open garage door, lounge chairs and a Jenga tower on the floor.
Hackathon kickoff
Ava and three other scholars smiling around a “project DIY” maker-station table strewn with paper, glue, brushes, and collage materials.
Building at the project DIY station
Ava in a white dress holding up a decorated collage vision board — cut-out words like “AVA”, “PREMIUM” and “WE BELIEVE”, and a butterfly — in front of a glowing blue neon “Create” sign in an art studio.
The vision board I made
Ava and four teammates standing behind a prize table holding Apple Watch and Ray-Ban boxes, in front of a screen reading “LinkedIn — POSSIBILITIES IN TECH HACKATHON — Designing LinkedIn around Gen-Z & Gen Alpha Users” with the team’s headshots, including Ava Martoma’s.
Our hackathon team and the prizes
About twenty scholars crowded together under a white event tent at dusk, a red patio umbrella and outdoor heater behind them, several throwing shakas and finger-hearts.
Under the tent at dusk
Ava and four other scholars in lanyards posing arm-in-arm at a Topgolf bay, one holding a golf club, screens and driving-range netting behind them.
Topgolf with the crew
A hand holding an assembled s’more — toasted marshmallow and chocolate between graham crackers — on a napkin in front of a lit gas fire pit at dusk.
S’mores by the fire pit
Point-of-view shot of a folded paper In-N-Out Burger hat resting on a lap, wooden patio chairs and sneakers below.
First In-N-Out
Ava laughing mid-song with a blue karaoke microphone, standing in front of a screen scrolling red-and-white karaoke lyrics.
Karaoke night
About twenty scholars in brightly colored costume wigs — pink, blue, purple, orange, green — crowded together throwing finger-hearts, balloons on the wall behind them.
Wig night
A scrapbook page under blacklight: a neon-orange sheet with “AVA” painted in bubble letters, a polaroid, a glowing UFO sticker and decorative washi tape, on a table scattered with neon craft supplies.
Neon scrapbooking
Ava and a fellow scholar bent over a table making beaded crafts under purple and orange mood lighting, bags of beads and charms spread out in front of them.
Beading under the lights
Seen through a doorway, a group of scholars sit on the floor and stools around glass tables playing a card game in a game room with a bold black-and-white sports mural.
Card game in the game room
A LinkedIn office wall displaying two rows of framed vintage Star Wars comic books in acrylic mounts, lit from behind with blue and purple light.
The comic-book wall
Ava and a fellow scholar sitting side by side on grey lounge chairs, smiling, with catering chafing dishes on a table behind them.
Lounging between sessions
A tilted selfie inside a van packed with scholars heading to an activity, one flashing a peace sign and Ava smiling in the front seat with her seatbelt on.
Van ride to the next thing
Six scholars, including Ava, sitting shoulder to shoulder on a yellow bench beneath the glittered blue LinkedIn “in” logo indoors.
The girls at the logo
The cohort gathered in two rows on an outdoor concrete plaza at golden hour under a clear sky, arms around each other for a group portrait.
Golden-hour send-off
A studio headshot of Ava in a white dress against a grey backdrop, smiling with one hand on her hip.
Headshot day

Coca-Cola Scholars

The Coca-Cola Scholars Program names 150 high-school seniors across the country each year — chosen from more than 100,000 applicants — and awards each a $20,000 college scholarship. As guests of honor, the class spends Scholars Weekend in Atlanta: the World of Coca-Cola, a leadership institute and service projects, and the black-tie Scholars Banquet.
Ava in a red dress and tan cardigan standing beside a restored vintage yellow Coca-Cola delivery truck lettered “Drink Coca-Cola” inside a bright marble atrium.
The vintage Coca-Cola truck
A towering wall of vintage Coca-Cola advertising signs and memorabilia in many languages — “Fountain Service”, “Drug Store — Delicious and Refreshing”, “Sign of Good Taste” — at the World of Coca-Cola.
Wall of vintage Coca-Cola signs
A performer in the Coca-Cola polar bear costume, wearing a red Coca-Cola scarf, greeting a crowd of dressed-up scholars who reach out for high-fives in a glass-walled lobby.
Meeting the Coca-Cola polar bear
Ava in a red dress, her Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation badge reading “Ava Martoma”, standing arm-in-arm with a fellow scholar in a black shirt in a glass-walled building lobby.
Meeting a fellow scholar
Ava and another Coca-Cola Scholar in a light blue shirt, both wearing Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation lanyards, smiling together by the lobby windows.
New friends in the cohort
A service-project craft in progress on the floor: a wooden skateboard deck decorated with a cut-paper rocket and stars, and a white helmet marked “NASA”, surrounded by paper scraps.
Decorating skateboards for a service project
A giant red-and-white peg-art wall spelling “Congratulations 2025 Coke Scholars”, with scholars gathered on the balcony below it.
Congratulations, 2025 Coke Scholars
The banquet hall set for the gala — round tables in orange linens with silver chiavari chairs and red rose centerpieces, twin stage screens carrying the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation seal.
The Scholars Banquet hall
Ava in a black dress standing between two people at the banquet, the round Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation logo lit up on the backdrop behind them and a colorful patterned carpet underfoot.
At the banquet
Walking the banquet stage (video)
Ava in a black dress with a fellow scholar in navy in front of an enormous illuminated red Coca-Cola Scholars seal glowing pink and red.
In front of the Scholars seal
Ava in a black dress standing with a fellow scholar in a dark suit in front of the giant red Coca-Cola bottle-and-laurel seal backdrop.
One more at the backdrop

Chick-fil-A Community Scholars

Chick-fil-A Community Scholars awards thirteen $25,000 scholarships a year to community service-minded leaders, chosen for academic success, service and financial need, and pairs the money with a year-long leadership-development and mentorship program. As a 2025 Community Scholar I got the oversized check and the confetti cannons — then spent the year on the rest of it: a backstage tour of the Chick-fil-A Support Center, a service shift at Bracken's Kitchen, a food-facility tour, and a behind-the-scenes day at the Walt Disney Studios.
Ava in a black blazer holding an oversized Chick-fil-A Community Scholars check — $25,000, dated 02/28/2025, “For: 2025 Scholarship Winners” — beside the Chick-fil-A Cow mascot in its red “Eat Mor Chikin” jersey, confetti scattered on the turf.
The $25,000 Community Scholars check
The scholarship cohort crowded together holding the giant $25,000 check beside the Cow mascot as red and white confetti cannons go off in front of the “Eat Mor Chikin” cow truck.
Confetti cannons and the reveal
The full cohort of scholars with Chick-fil-A staff and the Cow mascot gathered around the $25,000 check on confetti-covered grass in front of the “Chikin Plz” cow truck.
The 2025 Community Scholars
Ava laughing and clapping among fellow scholars as red and white balloons and a raised arm shoot up in celebration.
Celebrating the news
A Chick-fil-A Support Center display: a red wall with a neon-script “Inspire” over “Through Creativity”, fronted by three cartoon cows sculpted riding paint-tipped pogo sticks.
“Inspire through creativity” at the Support Center
The scholar cohort posed on and around a red loveseat in a white studio, all wearing red lanyards, beneath a wall reading “It’s the Little Things”.
The cohort — “it’s the little things”
Five scholars in red “Special Guest” lanyards posing in front of a step-and-repeat backdrop tiled with the Chick-fil-A “Backstage Tour” logo, bare winter trees through the window behind them.
On the Backstage Tour
About twenty scholars and staff in matching “Scholars” jackets throwing peace signs in front of a painted mural of a red “Bracken’s Kitchen” food truck.
Service day at Bracken’s Kitchen
Ava in a hairnet and red apron cracking eggs into a tray alongside a line of fellow scholars prepping food in a community kitchen.
Cracking eggs on the line
The cohort in white lab coats, hairnets, safety glasses, headsets and hard hats posed inside a food-production facility, a wall behind them reading “Compelling Business Need”.
Suited up for the plant tour
Scholars gathered under a tree on the Walt Disney Studios lot listening to a guide, an original studio bungalow behind them and a red Mickey Mouse tote in hand.
A guided tour of the studio lot
About ten scholars, several in grey “Scholars” jackets, crowded together at the Walt Disney Archives — a Mickey-through-the-ages mural behind them and one scholar holding a gold Oscar statuette.
Inside the Walt Disney Archives
Ava in a green top holding a gold Oscar statuette and wearing a “Guest” badge, smiling in front of the “Walt Disney Archives” Mickey mural with Haunted Mansion figures beside her.
Holding an Oscar at the Archives
Scholars grouped around the bronze “Partners” statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse in the orange-walled Legends Plaza at the Walt Disney Studios.
At the Partners statue
The whole cohort and program staff posed in front of a large Disneyland 70th-anniversary “70” display topped with Tinker Bell, palms behind them.
A cohort day out at Disneyland

Penn M&T

The Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology is Penn's dual degree between Penn Engineering and Wharton — about fifty of us admitted a year, graduating with an engineering degree and a Wharton BS in Economics. It's what the “School of Engineering & Wharton” line on my education card actually means.
The M&T cohort — around forty-five students, most in navy Penn sweatshirts and jeans — banked up the steps of the Wharton School on an autumn morning, the carved lettering “The Wharton School — Steinberg Hall · Dietrich Hall” above them and fallen leaves on the brick.
The cohort on the Steinberg–Dietrich steps

Phi Gamma Nu

Phi Gamma Nu is a co-ed professional business fraternity. I was initiated into Penn's Delta Lambda chapter as one of fifteen new members — bid night with hand-drawn welcome signs, then business formal and a red rose each in front of the whole chapter. The rest is the ordinary life of it: a retreat, dinners in Chinatown and New York, cake at the end of a meeting, and posters made for each other's dance shows.
A dozen members crowded onto a leather couch in a chapter-house living room, each holding up a hand-lettered poster — “Ryan Dong, welcome to ΦΓΝ”, “Welcome to ΦΓΝ Aadish”, “Isael”, “Yupeng”, “Dab on 'em” — with one reading “Welcome Ava to ΦΓΝ” at the edge of the frame.
Bid night — a poster for every new member
About forty members packed into a chapter-house room at night, sitting on the floor, on couches and perched on a table, welcome posters held up through the crowd and a grey ΦΓΝ crewneck in the front row.
The whole chapter turned out for it
Eleven members in a chapter-house room holding hand-drawn posters that read “Welcome to the Titans” — one for Ava, one for Yupeng, one for D. Vo — while the row behind them make hand-over-head gestures.
Placed in the Titans family
Ava and a fellow new member in black blazers, each holding a long-stemmed red rose, in front of a projected slide headed “PGN | Delta Lambda Chapter” listing the new-member class with Ava Martoma among the names.
Initiation, with the class list still on the screen
Eight new members in business formal pressed together for a photo at the front of the initiation room, most of them holding a red rose.
Part of the new-member class
Ava and another new member cheek to cheek in front of the projector screen, a red rose held up between them and the last few names of the class list still visible behind.
Just initiated
Around twenty members in business formal behind a long classroom desk, passing red roses down the row and holding them in their teeth, loose petals and leaves scattered across the desk.
The formal photo, abandoned immediately
The full chapter — about fifty people in business formal — banked up the tiers of a lecture room, with the new members kneeling along the front holding red roses and framed photographs propped on the desk behind them.
The whole chapter after initiation
Ava and two fellow members in black blazers over white, arms around each other on the grass in front of one of Penn’s green serpentine-stone halls, the trees just coming into leaf.
Business formal, spring semester
A nine-person selfie in a brick corridor, everyone in suits and blazers, Ava pulling a face at the right-hand edge of the frame.
On the way in to a chapter event
Thirteen members in business formal lined up along a classroom wall; one holds a hand-painted banner reading “Happy Birthday Ava — 19” and Ava, next to her, holds a cake with lit candles.
Cake at the end of a chapter meeting
Five members in heavy winter coats, one in a navy Penn squash jacket, arms around each other in the snow outside a brick residence hall, two of them carrying red binders.
A very cold day on campus
About twenty members squeezed together on the pavement outside Congee Village, its neon bar sign and framed newspaper clippings filling the windows behind them.
Chapter dinner in New York
A tilted five-person selfie beneath a red, green and gold Chinatown gate, hand-pulled-noodle shopfronts running down the street behind.
Under the Chinatown gate
A dozen members in hoodies and pyjama trousers posing with marshmallow skewers outside a string-lit A-frame house at night, a fire pit burning off to one side.
S’mores outside the A-frame
Eight members crowded together in front of a silver tinsel curtain strung with fairy lights at a party.
In front of the tinsel curtain
Around eighteen members on the parquet floor of a wood-panelled hall holding hand-made posters — “Alpha Ava”, “Superstar Sophia”, “Our fav house dancers Aadish + Ryan”, “Zheng Kang out with a BANG” — with “PGN” scrawled on the whiteboard behind them.
Signs for each other’s dance showcase

Calvin Coolidge Senator

The Coolidge Senators Program recognises one hundred of the top Coolidge Scholarship applicants each year. The 2024 Senators Summit was at Plymouth Notch, Vermont — Calvin Coolidge's preserved birthplace village — for a few days of seminars and debate with the rest of the cohort, plus a lot of Vermont hillside.
Ava and two fellow Coolidge Senators, all in black formalwear with green Coolidge Foundation badges, standing with a speaker in a suit inside the wood-panelled Union Christian Church at Plymouth Notch.
Inside the Plymouth Notch church
Ava with two fellow Senators in formalwear standing in a meadow at dusk, a forested Vermont hillside rising behind them.
Vermont hillside at dusk
Three Senators in formalwear on the lawn beside an event tent in the evening light at Plymouth Notch.
Evening reception on the lawn
Ava and another Senator in formalwear under a pine at dusk, with the Vermont valley behind them.
Before the summit dinner
Ava and other Senators partway up a rooty forest trail in Vermont, a waterfall visible through the trees behind them.
Hiking to the falls
Selfie from the top of a zip-line tower — three Senators in climbing harnesses, treetops and grass far below.
Top of the zip-line tower
Three Senators in blue climbing helmets and harnesses grinning before their turn on the zip line.
Harnessed up
Interior of a preserved barn at the Coolidge historic site: horse harnesses hanging from hand-hewn beams, drying corn, and a bear-skin-covered cutter sleigh.
The barn at the historic site
Inside the Plymouth Notch general store, its rough-timber walls stocked with a decorated tree and holiday goods.
The Plymouth Notch general store

MITES

MITES — MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering, and Science — is a six-week residential summer program at MIT. I took architecture alongside physics and maths, and the capstone was The Grove, a Charles River pavilion designed with Aster Dean. Six weeks of problem sets, a studio, and a cohort I still miss.
The MITES cohort in matching black MITES T-shirts on the columned steps of an MIT building, all making the pyramid hand sign.
The cohort on the MIT steps
Ava presenting in a lecture hall beside a slide titled “ACEs and Stress — types of stress and their effects on the body”, carrying the KidsMates logo.
Presenting on ACEs and stress
A classmate at a chalkboard working through the damped harmonic oscillator — the complex solution, the damping factor, natural frequency, and the ansatz method for a pendulum.
Damped harmonic oscillators, worked live
The MITES students and instructors together in a slatted-timber lobby, several wearing MITES and MIT shirts.
Students and instructors
Ava and two classmates sitting on the brick floor of a dorm lounge late at night, laptops and problem sets spread around them.
Problem sets on the floor
A selfie of a dozen students spread across the couches of a common room, giving thumbs up, a whiteboard of figures behind them.
Common-room session
Ava in a bookshop holding up three books — Beyond Diversity, HBR’s 10 Must Reads, and In Her Own Voice: A Woman’s Rise to CEO.
Bookshop haul
Ava and a fellow MITES student taking a selfie on a Boston street in MITES lanyards, brownstones behind them.
Out in Boston
Ten students crowded around a picnic table outside an MIT dorm holding burgers and hot dogs at a cookout.
Cookout on campus
The cohort dressed up on the bridge over the Charles at golden hour, the Boston skyline behind them.
Banquet night on the Charles
Eight students in formalwear arm in arm in front of a window overlooking the Charles at the closing banquet.
The closing banquet
Red and gold fireworks bursting over the treeline across the Charles River, watched from the lawn.
Fourth of July over the Charles

T-Mobile Changemaker Challenge

KIDSMATES — the nonprofit I co-founded — won a $15,000 grant at the 2023 T-Mobile Changemaker Challenge in Seattle, one of three winning teams from the national cohort.
Ava pitching KIDSMATES on stage, with a slide reading “KIDSMATES — Joshua Martoma & Ava Martoma” behind her.
Pitching KIDSMATES on stage
Ava and her brother Joshua accept the oversized $15,000 KIDSMATES check from a T-Mobile Foundation representative.
Accepting the $15,000 grant
The three winning teams on stage, each holding a $15,000 T-Mobile Foundation check.
The three 2023 winning teams
Ava carrying the giant pink $15,000 KIDSMATES check across the T-Mobile campus.
One very large check
The 2023 Changemaker Challenge cohort in matching hoodies in front of a pink “Welcome Changemakers” backdrop.
The 2023 cohort
Ava talking with other participants in front of the pink “Welcome Changemakers” screen.
Meeting the other changemakers
Ava and her reflection group posing at a rope-net structure.
Reflection group
The cohort laughing together beneath the Space Needle.
Seattle Center
The full cohort seated together on wide wooden steps.
The whole crew
Ava and a fellow changemaker in pink T-Mobile rain ponchos taking a selfie in the rain on campus.
Rainy day on campus
Ava and three others on a pink couch beneath a large magenta T-Mobile logo.
T-Mobile HQ
Ava lining up a shot on a pink-felt pool table during downtime.
Downtime

Taco Bell Ambition Accelerator

The Taco Bell Foundation and Ashoka named KidsMates — the nonprofit I co-founded — one of the Ambition Accelerator's Top 50 semi-finalists. The 2024 summit was two days at Taco Bell's headquarters in Irvine: showcasing our work on resilience and STEM access for children of incarcerated parents, team challenges with the rest of the cohort, and a certificate for fueling a movement of changemakers.
Ava standing behind her KidsMates table at the Ambition Accelerator Summit, a laptop in front of her showing a slide titled “Developing Resilience in the Face of Parental Incarceration”, with a large Taco Bell Foundation and Ashoka summit board describing KidsMates behind her.
Showcasing KidsMates at the summit
Called up on stage (video)
Ava on the summit stage holding her purple Ambition Accelerator certificate, which reads “In honor of your achievement in fueling a movement of changemakers in your community — Ava Martoma, KidsMates”.
The Ambition Accelerator certificate
A wall-sized backlit display in the hotel lobby showing a grid of fifty headshots with a hand-drawn “50” across it, captioned “Ambition Accelerator Top 50”.
The Top 50 wall
Purple graphic with the KidsMates logo reading “Taco Bell x Ashoka — Ambition Accelerator Semi-Finalist”, with a cartoon taco mascot.
Semi-finalist announcement
Participants in black “Spark Positive Change” T-shirts walking toward the glass doors of Taco Bell headquarters, the entrance lettered “1 Glen Bell Way”.
Heading in — 1 Glen Bell Way
The full Ambition Accelerator cohort of about fifty people in matching black T-shirts and purple lanyards, posed outside the glass entrance of Taco Bell headquarters.
The cohort at Taco Bell HQ
A dozen participants laughing in a conference room around a collapsed tower of spaghetti and marshmallows on the floor, taco artwork on the wall behind them.
Our tower did not survive the build challenge
Taking a turn at the prize wheel (video)
The cohort in purple Taco Bell Foundation jerseys posed in front of the Disneyland Railroad station and the Mickey Mouse flower bed.
Cohort day out at Disneyland
Ava in a purple Ambition Accelerator jersey standing on the tram tracks on Main Street, U.S.A., with Sleeping Beauty Castle in the distance.
Main Street, U.S.A.
Participants in purple jerseys gathered under Pixar Fest banners at the entrance to Disney California Adventure.
Outside Disney California Adventure