Connie Renda, MA, RHIA, CHDA, Program Director and Assistant Professor for Health Information Technology and Management, was recognized by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) with the prestigious Leadership Award.
We are excited to share the members of Generation Hope's California Presidents Circle, the first in a new national initiative designed to equip higher education executives with tools, data, and peer support to truly champion parenting students and their families.
Women’s volleyball at Mesa College is on a spike. In the spring, the Olympians won the state beach volleyball title after winning the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference title for a fourth straight year.
March 6, 2017
Four San Diego Mesa College SEEDS (STEM Engagement for the Enrichment of Diverse Students program) students presented their research projects at the 2017 Principal Investigator’s Meeting Feb. 16-18 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The theme for this year’s conference, hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Institute of Food and Agriculture was, “Workforce Diversity and Career Opportunities within the USDA for Current and Recent Graduates.” The students participated in three days of student and professional track activities, some of which involved meeting employees from various USDA agencies.
Students at the conference received information about potential career opportunities with the USDA and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Mesa students were eligible to participate in the conference because the Mesa College is a Hispanic Serving Institution.
“Our SEEDS Scholars met with professionals to learn tips for networking, writing winning resumes and preparing for graduate school,” said Dr. Waverly Ray, SEEDS co-coordinator and Geography professor. “By meeting with students and professors from four-year universities and federal employees, the SEEDS Scholars widen their perspective on what their future could hold.”
Out of the 69 poster presenters at the conference, Biology major Claudia Nieto, Chemistry major Joe Avalos, Agriculture and Environmental Science major Cassie Casares and Environmental Studies and Economics major Sara Ramirez were the only students from a community college invited to speak.
Ramirez, who hopes to transfer to UC Santa Cruz in the fall, presented her poster on “Experiential Learning” outside of the classroom through field trips to various farms. She said that seeing the presentations by students from bachelor’s and graduate degree programs will help in the future of her career as a student and an environmentalist.
“It’s definitely eye-opening to see the research – the graduate students and other undergraduate students had a lot of detailed research, and I thought it was really cool that they were interested in this and they put in so many hours into the research,” Ramirez said. “It taught me the ‘soft skills,’ like how to talk to professionals, how to network – so I think that’s definitely going to be very useful in the future.”
Nieto, who would like to transfer to either UC Davis or UC Santa Cruz, said that she felt inspired by her participation at the Principal Investigator’s Meeting. During the conference, she presented her research on outdoor classrooms and gardens at elementary schools near Mesa College through her volunteer work with the Clairemont Mesa Education Foundation.
“I’d like to encourage younger students to be more aware of environmental issues and healthy attitudes,” Nieto said of her research. “The purpose of these gardens is also to engage more students in STEM careers, starting at a younger age.”
Casares’ poster presentation was on the 2016 SEEDS Sustainability Summit at Mesa and Avalos discussed the vegetable and herb garden at Mesa. Ray also presented in a poster session at the conference about the success of the SEEDS program at Mesa College and how it is “creating pathways to USDA-related careers.”
The trip was primarily funded by the SEEDS Scholars program grant, made possible by a four-year USDA-NIFA HSI grant.
Applications for the fall 2017 SEEDS program are now being accepted and are due by May 8, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. If selected as one of the 20 scholars for the program, students will get hands on experience working in STEM-related fields, including sustainability, global food security and hunger.
“SEEDS is an enriching experience for our underrepresented students to engage in diverse experiences where students can apply their expertise in an environmental way,” said Leticia Lopez, HSI Title III grant director. “It appeals to students who study multiple disciplines, not just our STEM discipline students.”
For more information about the SEEDS program at Mesa College visit their webpage online, or contact Waverly Ray at (619) 388-2408 or [email protected].
Photo by Rick Chavez
Jennifer Nichols Kearns
Director of Communications
[email protected]
(619) 388-2759
Dr. Waverly Ray
Co-coordinator - SEEDS; Professor - Geography
[email protected]
(619) 388-2408
NASA has selected 40 undergraduate students for the first year of its Europa ICONS (Inspiring Clipper: Opportunities for Next-generation Scientists) internship program, supporting the agency’s Europa Clipper mission. Europa ICONS matches students with mentors from the mission’s science team for a 10-week program to conduct original scientific research on topics related to the mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa.
San Diego Mesa College Alumnus Mario Romero made history as part of a team from Intuitive Machines’ whose uncrewed lander made history Thursday as the first privately owned spacecraft to touch down on the lunar surface. It was also the first U.S. vehicle to accomplish this in more than 50 years. After four years of preparations, the company’s 14-foot-tall Nova-C lander navigated to a spot near the moon’s South Pole. It was the 24th mission to softly land on the moon since 1966. And with it comes a new era of exploration.
The San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC) named Mesa's Computer Information Science program is now a Verified Program of Computing Talent! Programs were verified as part of a rigorous evaluation process led by Advancing San Diego, the flagship program of EDC's Talent Initiatives, which serves to double the production of skilled workers in San Diego while prioritizing historically underrepresented populations in the innovation economy.
