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.
March 22, 2017
San Diego Mesa College students planning to take Spanish 102 or 201 this summer are invited to spend a month in Spain to study abroad for a true immersion experience from June 26 to July 22.
The study abroad program is part of a hybrid class program where students will have classes online from June 12-23 before departing to Spain.
“Study abroad is a really unique learning opportunity and it is kind of transformative,” said Dora Schoenbrun-Fernández, a Spanish professor in her second year as the director for the Madrid Summer 2017 Study Abroad program. “You learn a lot of things while you’re abroad – of course, you learn the academics, which is important to us, and then you apply to the classroom. One of the greatest things about studying abroad is that you learn more about yourself.”
Schoenbrun-Fernández said that students who study abroad often gain confidence with the language that they are studying, and that the “security net” of being in the program helps students more than if they were traveling alone.
“It is an immersive experience, so academically, it’s catapulting you into the fast lane of learning,” she added. “One thing that we talk about in class is that you have to actively learn your vocabulary through flash cards, reading things or repeating things to yourself. In the case of living in a foreign country, you’re surrounded by all that language actively and using it in your daily experience.”
Once in Madrid, students will take classes with Mesa College professors at the Universidad Complutense Mondays through Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Students will stay at the Colegio Mayor Universitario Fundación SEPI in single occupancy dorm rooms, each equipped with a private bathroom.
Included in the $2,789 cost of the trip are the dorm rooms; 3 meals a day, seven days a week; pre-departure orientation; guided tours of Madrid, Royal Palace and various museums; pick up and drop off at the airport; use of gym facilities and an unlimited transportation pass for the bus and metro. The study abroad tuition also includes weekend excursions to the Spanish cities of Toledo and Segovia.
Not included in the cost of the trip are the $100 application fee with Modern Language Studies Abroad, the Mesa College tuition, roundtrip airfare, airport taxes, personal expenses and personal effects insurance.
Details on the study abroad program in Madrid can be found online. For more information, contact Spanish professor Dora Schoenbrun-Fernández at dschoenb@sdccd.edu.
Tags: Spanish, Study Abroad, Languages, Madrid
Jennifer Nichols Kearns
Director of Communications
jnkearns@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2759
Dora Schoenbrun-Fernández
Professor - Spanish
dschoenb@sdccd.edu
San Diego City and San Diego Mesa colleges were recognized today by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for having produced the most Gilman scholarship recipients over the past twenty years amongst those colleges awarding associate degrees.
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.
This week, San Diego Mesa College kicked off International Education Week by hosting the International Education Exhibitor Fair where students had the opportunity to explore the different ways to get involved and celebrate other cultures. Booths—varying from International Study Abroad programs to language clubs to Martial Arts—decorated Sunrise Plaza for students to see all the options available to them.
