Getting accustomed to watching Scooby Doo in Spanish was the least of Moriba Jah’s (’99, ERAU Prescott Campus) challenges at age 6. Moving from California to Venezuela multiplied the typical new kid troubles, and Jah endured more than his share of childhood bullying as a result. “I was a foreigner and learning a new language. There were different cartoons, different customs, different everything. It’s not easy for a kid,” he says.
But through it all — and with the support of his late parents, mother Elsie Turnier de Marquez, stepfather Jorge Marquez Lupi and father Abraham Jah — he developed an animated personality and a dogged determination that resulted in many career successes. Today, Jah is a leading voice in the discussion over human-made orbital debris at The University of Texas at Austin.