At the January 22nd, 2024 meeting of the California Community Colleges Board of Governors, the San Diego Mesa College Ethnic Studies Faculty Council was awarded the prestigious Exemplary Program Award.
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.
November 16, 2016
San Diego Mesa College’s third annual Thanksgiving Feast – organized by the Mesa College H.O.S.T. program and the Associated Students – will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 22 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in room MC 211 A/B.
Victoria Miller, Dean of Student Affairs, said that the faculty, staff and administrators at Mesa always want “students to feel valued and appreciated,” and that the Thanksgiving Feast is just one way that they help to accomplish this goal throughout the year.
“At Mesa, we pride ourselves in ‘community,’ and building relationships with our students – what better way is there than our own students doing this for students,” said Victoria Miller, Dean of Student Affairs. “It’s important because we do recognize that not everybody is able to go away for the Thanksgiving break, and we also recognize that not everybody knows where their food for the evening is going to come from.”
Describing it as a “warm, family event,” Miller hopes that students won’t just stop by to eat and leave, but she encourages everyone to engage in conversation and feel like they’re a part of holiday.
This free kickoff of the holiday season was created as a way to make students feel welcome on campus – especially those that are homeless, food insecure, don’t have holiday plans or are international/out-of-state students and cannot travel home for Thanksgiving.
Paid for by the AS, the event will offer ham, turkey and vegetarian meals for any student on campus who wishes to participate. There will be entertainment provided during the feast, as well as games for attendees to participate in.
H.O.S.T., which stands for Hope Offered to Students in Transition, is an entity of the AS that has organized this event every year since 2014. Originally started as a way to help students in need, the other main purpose of the event is to foster a sense of community and family on campus.
AS President Ava Fakhrabadi said that MC 211 A/B will be festively decorated for the event and that it provides an opportunity to socialize with other students.
“It’s an opportunity for students to have a home here at Mesa, especially for students who don’t get a Thanksgiving feast,” Fakhrabadi said. “We allocate quite a bit of money for it because we think it’s a really important event.”
In addition to the meal, games and entertainment, there will also be an opportunity drawing where students can win gift cards for local restaurants and supermarkets, donated in large part by faculty and staff on campus.
For more information or to donate a gift card or money toward a gift card for the opportunity drawing, contact Victoria Miller via phone at (619) 388-2699 or via email at vmiller@sdccd.edu.
Tags: ASG, Student Success and Equity, H.O.S.T., Associated Student Government, Equity and Excellence
Jennifer Nichols Kearns
Director of Communications
jnkearns@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2759
Victoria Miller
Dean of Student Affairs
vmiller@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2699
At the January 22nd, 2024 meeting of the California Community Colleges Board of Governors, the San Diego Mesa College Ethnic Studies Faculty Council was awarded the prestigious Exemplary Program Award.
Looking to address equity issues on campus, San Diego Mesa College sought out advice and expertise from the Center for Urban Education (CUE) at the University of Southern California. “We needed to have someone hold up the mirror to us because it can be difficult to change from within if you don’t know what you need to change,” said Dr. Pamela Luster, President of Mesa.
San Diego, CA — Today, San Diego Mesa College will host the Advancing Racial Justice and Equitable Outcomes in Community College Institute, scheduled for Sept. 12 at San Diego Mesa College, is the third such meeting organized by the University of Illinois Office of Community College Research and Leadership. Issues of race on community college campuses will be the focus of the conference.
