Second-year student Zora Williams is using her voice to bring more mental health and nutrition programming to San Diego Mesa College. Williams was elected president of the college’s Associated Students (AS) for the 2024-2025 academic year and serves as the college’s student representative on the San Diego Community College District Board of Trustees.
Sometimes, you hear a story that makes you want to know more. Kevin Gonzalez has such a story. The last time this story was updated, San Diego Mesa College student Kevin Gonzalez was a 15 year-old heading off to Massachusetts to complete his high school education. In the ensuing years, he has travelled to the other side of the world, built houses, but remained in close contact with his Mesa College professors and connections he made while on campus.
The San Diego Community College District has appointed four new student trustees for the upcoming academic year. Dalia Ramirez (San Diego City College), Zora Williams (San Diego Mesa College), Hailey Hua (San Diego Miramar College), and Haydee Zuniga (San Diego College of Continuing Education), will be sworn in during the June 20 SDCCD Board of Trustees meeting.
February 6, 2017
More than 50 students, faculty and staff preemptively celebrated the birthday of American civil rights activist Rosa Parks at the San Diego Mesa College Transit Stop on Feb. 2.
The birthday recognition was the first event in a full schedule for Black History Month celebrations at Mesa College. As a part of the day’s activities, Black Studies professors Thekima Mayasa and Candice Katungi offered a libation – a traditional African ritual of pouring a liquid offering in memory of someone – to honor Parks.
“We gather here today because our world is changing,” Mayasa said. “American society is going through a very important transition and institutions of learning – like San Diego Mesa College – are important to understanding what that change is, and how we’re all impacted by that change.”
Black Studies and Psychology double major Jeffrey D. McKennie read Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” during the event. He said he was inspired to read the poem because he said it is a powerful poem that speaks to everyone.
“We all have different trials and tribulations that we go through, and the one thing that we need to understand is that we need to ‘rise,’” McKennie said. “The only thing that can hold us down is ourselves, so I just wanted to share that with everybody that way they understand that they are powerful and that they are greatness, and that they can still ‘rise’ no matter what’s going on.”
In attendance were many students, faculty and staff from the campus, including Mesa President Dr. Pamela Luster.
“It’s important for our community to know that Mesa College is a college that celebrates diversity, equity and inclusion, and that that’s who we are,” Luster said. “I think that every single voice and every single action matters – and informed action matters. You need to inform yourself about what actually happens in the world.”
One student in attendance, Clifford Smith, spoke to the crowd of the importance of representation of people of color in mainstream media.
“Representation of us as black people is not really seen – we always see the lighter individuals, but we don’t see the dark individual with the nappy hair like me,” Smith said. “We need the system of colorism to be destroyed, diminished if we’re going to unify as people and as human beings.”
Larry Maxey, Dean of Student Success and Equity, said that events like the Rosa Parks Birthday Recognition on campus can help students to feel a sense of belonging at Mesa College and that he hopes that students don’t “hold themselves back because of fear.”
“I feel so encouraged by our students’ expressions – to hear that they understand and recognize the sacrifices that individuals like Rosa Parks made in order for them to be here and have the opportunity to be successful in college,” Maxey said.
For more information about the upcoming Black History Month events, contact Thekima Mayasa via phone at (619) 388-2352 or via email at tmayasa@sdccd.edu, or contact Judy Sundayo via email at jsundayo@sdccd.edu.
Tags: Black History Month, Black Studies
Jennifer Nichols Kearns
Director of Communications
jnkearns@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2759
Thekima Mayasa
Department Chair - Black Studies
tmayasa@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2352
On February 5, 2025, San Diego Mesa College commemorated the birthday of civil rights activist Rosa Parks with its annual celebration and libation ceremony. The event served as the college’s official kickoff for Black History Month, contributing to this year’s theme of Transit Justice. A large gathering of students, faculty, and community members came together to honor Parks’ quiet act of defiance—one that changed the course of history.
Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. Every year, the San Diego Mesa College Library joins in the celebration by creating and curating a Black History Month Library Guide – filled with resources of what is available not only at the San Diego Mesa College library, but through other community resources as well.
Denise Rogers is a professor of art history at San Diego Mesa College, manages the college’s World Art permanent collection, and is the curator of “Africa in Context,” currently on display through Feb. 23 at the college in celebration of Black History Month. By Lisa Deaderick | February 4, 2023 As a young girl growing up in southeastern San Diego’s Shelltown neighborhood, Denise Rogers spent time flipping through the pages of Time and Life magazines her mother kept on their coffee table. At the time, she just enjoyed the pictures from galleries in New York, Paris, and Italy. Later, after an introductory art course prompted her to change her major from fashion design to art history, she found a career path that allowed her to pair her love of both history and art.
