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.
December 6, 2016
San Diego Community College District announced that it will be expanding its San Diego Promise program from 200 students to 800 students for the 2017-2018 college academic year during a press conference at San Diego Mesa College on Dec. 6.
“The high school diploma is no longer the entry ticket to the workforce,” said SDCDD Chancellor Constance Carroll during the press conference. “People – in order to be gainfully employed and make good wages – require some education beyond high school.”
With an ultimate goal of offering the San Diego Promise scholarship to 2,600 of students, the program’s goal is to help students to attend college who may have been unable to due to the financial burden. According to the San Diego Promise website, Promise students come from families with a combined income of $40,000 or less per year, with 15 percent from families with a combined income of $10,000 or less.
The pilot program for the 200 Promise students who are attending Miramar, Mesa and City during the 2016-2017 academic year costs about $250,000. SDCCD Board of Trustees member Maria Nieto Senour Ph.D. said that the program has yielded positive results thus far and that the Board is supportive of the initiative.
“We’re thrilled that we have successfully completed a year in this program,” Senour said. “Education changes lives in much more profound ways than just helping you not come from poverty and not pass that onto our kids – it also opens your mindset and allows you to understand so many things that you wouldn’t otherwise."
Some of the current Promise students were in attendance for the press conference. Among them was Mesa student Quintin Wortham – a graduate of James Madison High School who was denied the FAFSA and wouldn’t have been able to attend college without the Promise scholarship.
“This program I am very, very thankful for,” Wortham said. “This helps me because I really want to become an architect and do something great in the community, and this program has really helped me to be guided in that direction and be successful in order to impact the community in a great way.”
After receiving Pell Grants and financial aid using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, students who receive the Promise Scholarship will have the rest of their class fees covered and receive up to $750 in grant money for textbooks and instructional supplies. Awarded students who do not qualify for FAFSA have their enrollment fees paid for through this Promise scholarship.
Students interested in applying for fall 2017 and spring 2018 semester can apply now through Feb. 10, 2017 by filling out a form available online and getting approval from a counselor on their high school campus.
To be eligible, students must be graduating San Diego Unified School District in 2017, enroll at SDCCD in fall 2017, be state residents or DACA students, file FAFSA or a California Dream Act application, and have a minimum GPA of 2.0.
Those enrolled in the program are required to complete a minimum of 12 units per semester, remain continuously enrolled for one academic year and complete eight hours of community service per semester. They also must complete all assessment, orientation and an education plan prior to registration; and participate in college wrap around services such as EOPS, FYE and Peer Navigators.
For more information about the San Diego Promise, contact Student Services Vice Chancellor Lynn Neault via phone at (619) 388-6922 or via email at lneault@sdccd.edu.
Donations to the San Diego Promise can be made online via PayPal, or checks can be mailed to:
San Diego Promise
c/o Lynn Neault, Vice Chancellor, Student Services
San Diego Community College District
3375 Camino del Rio South
San Diego, CA 92108
Tags: San Diego Promise
Jennifer Nichols Kearns
Director of Communications
jnkearns@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2759
Lynn Neault
SDCCD Vice Chancellor, Student Services
lneault@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-6922
For over five years, San Diego Mesa College has been offering Summer CRUISE—Creating Rich Unique Intellectual Student Experiences – for incoming students. This summer, Mesa offered six CRUISE sessions from June – August. Sessions are completely free and available to recent high school graduates and those who are first-time or returning college students.
San Diego, CA. — Today, San Diego Mesa College announced that the “Mesa Promise Match Challenge 2018”, which launched on August 10, 2018, has already raised nearly $40,000 in only 10 days. For the Challenge, the Mesa College Foundation is generously matching up to $25,000 of all monetary donations made towards the San Diego Promise on behalf of Mesa College through Friday, September 14, 2018. A new exciting feature for Mesa College is the ability to track donation progress live on the Match Challenge webpage at www.sdmesa.edu/PromiseChallenge18.
The San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) today announced a major expansion of its tuition-free program known as the San Diego Promise making all recent high school graduates who are first-time, full-time students eligible to receive two free years of college.
