Mesa College student veteran and prospective Health Information Technology graduate shares her experiences in higher education and giving back to the veteran community.
San Diego Mesa College has announced a new partnership with California LAW that will create a pathway for Mesa College students to complete their education and enter the legal profession. Cal LAW collaborates with community colleges to encourage diverse students enter the legal profession in order to represent the diverse population of the state of California. Mesa College will begin accepting interested students into its Pathway to Law School program in Spring 2021. Community colleges such as mesa partnering in the program were chosen due to their high commitment to equity, demonstrated by college leadership and resources that provide transformative educational experiences and support for students on a pathway to a law career.
Add writing a book to Professor Michael Harrison’s impressive list of activities and interests. Most people at Mesa College know him as a Spanish Professor, a member of the LGBTQ+ Task Force, the Co-Advisor for the Mesa Gender-Sexuality Alliance and even as a tenor with the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus. In his “spare time” though, he is a comic book fan. Really. Since forever. And, he loves superheroes in comics. And Comic-Con. Just ask him. His face will light up.
Due to continuity of instruction and rigorous adherence to guidelines and safety practices, 100% of Mesa College’s 2020 graduating Dental students who were seeking employment, were able to get hired this past summer, despite the global pandemic. Even though Mesa’s Dental Assisting students were not allowed to return to campus until June 22, 2020, during that time frame, the Dental Assisting faculty continued to engage and instruct students in their laboratory courses, remotely, through videos, virtual simulations, case studies role playing and discussions.
May 18, 2017
San Diego Mesa College’s veteran community will celebrate students that are graduating and/or transferring during an inaugural Veterans Graduation Ceremony on Friday, May 19 at 11 a.m.
“The Veterans Graduation Ceremony honors the successes of our student veterans, and publicly recognizes their abilities and potential for the future,” said Counselor Ramiro Hernandez who specializes in Veteran Affairs. “The sense of community garnered by this ceremony gives Mesa College the opportunity to show how much we appreciate their service and the pride we feel for their academic success. It also allows us to provide an equitable atmosphere for our student veterans who continue to work hard to reach their goals and appreciating what they have already accomplished.”
“These steps towards equity ensure that our graduating veterans will be able to look back fondly on their educational journey at Mesa for years to come, and once again feel pride in all that they accomplished. Some of our veterans have lost so much in their journey; we can give back by honoring them.”
This year, more than 75 military veterans will earn at least one degree from Mesa College, with 13 of those students earning two degrees and one student earning three degrees.
Both accounting major Jeremy Pratt (Marines) and applied mathematics major Benjamin Makowsky will graduate with a 4.0 GPA and the Highest Honors distinction.
Graduating with the High Honors distinction are 15 students, including Navy veterans Fabian Batchkin, Huimin Huang, Isis King, Liang Zhang and Bryan Moser; Marines Veterans Chuan Lan, Ryan Loper, Kyle Pacsai and Megan Loughmill; and Army veterans Aubrey Good and Peter Trisciuzzi.
Student veterans graduating with the honors distinction include Navy Veteran Michael Shanks, Rosa Andres, Alberto Esparza, Thang Giang, Iain Stratton and John Gilly Jr.; Marines veterans Logan Black and Thomas Thompson; and Air Force veteran Michael Gorny
In addition to preparing for graduation, several student veterans are also preparing to transfer to four-year colleges and universities for the fall 2017 semester.
Marine Corps veteran Freddy Cervantes will be transferring University of California,
Berkeley to major in electrical engineering and computer science.
“It’s their hardest major to get into, so I am really glad that all of the hard work paid off,” Cervantes said.
With a current GPA of 3.89, he will graduate with an Associate’s Degree in Physics with high honors from Mesa. Cervantes said that attending Mesa College helped to prepare him mentally to transfer to a four-year university.
“When I got out of the military, I wasn’t sure if I was going to do well in school or not,” he said. “In high school, I actually had some of the lowest grades. Not having been in school for four years after the military it was kind of intimidating, but when I came here I hit the ground running. At Mesa, I discovered that I love learning and that I am really good at math and science.”
Cervantes added that the student veteran community and Veterans Resource Center on campus – where he met many of his friends – became his support system and helped him to succeed as a student. He plans to continue the tradition of support by becoming a mentor at the VRC to give advice to incoming veterans.
Another student, Marine Corps veteran Evander Deocariza, is headed to Stanford University
in the fall to pursue a degree in Computer Science. Like Cervantes, Deocariza said
that although he had a gap between high school and college, the transition from military
life back into education was eased by the support systems available on campus.
“I graduated from high school in 2007, so it has basically been a decade since I studied math or science,” Deocariza said. “Mesa allowed me to jump back into those subjects in small classrooms, with supportive, invested professors. One of the things that really set Mesa apart from other community colleges is the veterans support network through the VRC and the Student Veteran Organization.”
Deocariza was a military linguist in the Marines, and already holds an associate’s degree from the Defense Language Institute in Pashto – an Arabic language native to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Being a part of the veteran community at Mesa College helped him to aspire to apply to transfer to Stanford, Deocariza said.
“Having a space where I can meet with and work with other student veterans helped in meeting my educational goals – the veterans here are all so high achieving and motivated and everyone is always reaching for the highest possible goals,” Deocariza said. “I learned about so many programs and opportunities through them, and their success inspired me to apply for a school that I might have otherwise thought was out of my reach.”
Another Stanford-bound student veteran from Mesa College is Loper, who served for
seven years as a Marine. Graduating with an Associate in Physics with high honors,
he attributes his success as a student to the education that he received from Mesa.
“The math and science programs at Mesa are fantastic – they have given me a foundation in physics and math to be able to study anywhere for engineering,” Loper said. “Also, the breadth of courses needed to get my associates degrees required me to take classes outside of my comfort zone, which also helped a lot with preparing me for Stanford.”
Outside of academic programs, Loper said that he felt that the campus community of professors, staff and administrators really supports the veterans.
“Mesa’s campus is super veteran-friendly, I am really glad that I came here,” Loper said. “It seems like the school is invested in the VRC and SVO, we see President Luster at a lot of our events, the professors seems to really understand some of the issues that are going on with veterans as we transition into school. and the fact that the school funds a place like the Veterans Resource Center with all the stuff that it has is amazing.”
For more information about Veteran Affairs and the Veterans Resource Center at San Diego Mesa College, contact Counselor Ramiro Hernandez via email at rmhernan@sdccd.edu or visit www.sdmesa.edu/veterans.
Tags: Veterans, Commencement
Jennifer Nichols Kearns
Director of Communications
jnkearns@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2759
Ramiro Hernandez
Counselor - Veterans
rmhernan@sdccd.edu
Mesa College student veteran and prospective Health Information Technology graduate shares her experiences in higher education and giving back to the veteran community.
Military veterans at San Diego City and San Diego Mesa colleges got an early Veterans Day present with the announcement of $400,000 in new grants to bolster services at their campus Veterans Resource Centers.
San Diego, CA. — Today, San Diego Mesa College announced that alumnus Antonio Martinez has been unanimously chosen to be their 2018 Distinguished Alumni, and will speak at the 2018 San Diego Mesa College Commencement Ceremony to be held at the USD Jenny Craig Pavilion on May 19th at 3:00pm.
