Two honors students from San Diego Mesa College – Restileon “Resty” Asuncion and Victoria
Green – have been named to the Phi Theta Kappa, All-California Academic Team, First
Team.
Scholars on the All-California Academic Team traveled to Sacramento on March 23 for
an award ceremony and luncheon. Each student was put in the running for the All-USA
Academic Team, which pulls from the Phi Theta Kappa chapter All-State Academic Teams
in all 38 participating states.
“Phi Theta Kappa provides a lot of opportunities for students here at Mesa,” said
Susan Hogan, one of the co-advisor for Phi Theta Kappa Beta Beta Upsilon Chapter at
Mesa College. “It provides opportunities for scholarships, community building and
helps students to get to know their peers. It also provides opportunities for community
service, which is one of our values in the Honors Program and in general at Mesa.”
Following what Hogan refers to as a rigorous application process of essay writing
and collecting recommendation letters from professors, being chosen as part of the
Academic Team is a major honor.
Political Science major Green is the Vice President of Scholarship for Phi Theta Kappa
at Mesa College. She works as a classroom tutor for math and hopes to transfer in
the fall to San Diego State University or University of California, San Diego to pursue
a degree in environmental policy with an emphasis in environmental security and a
minor in applied math.
“I have a passion for nature,” Green said. “For fun, I’ll just go to a park, get some
bikes and go mountain biking.”
Her love of the outdoors plays into her ultimate dream of working for the United Nations
to support initiatives to help deter global climate change.
“I want to work for the United Nations, helping developing countries plan to grow
around climate change in their communities,” Green said. “For instance, with flooding
and drought issues, I want to help communities to still thrive, even though the climate
is drastically changing.”
Despite being a non-traditional college student, Business Administration major Asuncion
has excelled while attending Mesa College, becoming the Honors Club Vice President
and maintaining a 3.77 GPA. Having immigrated to the United States from Philippines
17 years ago, he had postponed attending college but decided to go back to school
to be a good example to his two daughters, ages one and four.
“I know this is a prestigious award and I am so grateful that I received it because
it shows that my hard work and sacrifices have paid off,” Asuncion said. “This is
for my daughters; I work hard in school for them. I am now proving to myself that
if I can do it, they can do it, too. They don’t have any excuses.”
With his eyes set on his goal of transferring to University of California, Berkeley
to earn a Bachelor’s degree, Asuncion said that he would eventually like to get an
MBA. He added that he hopes that his hard work can help prove to other students that
they too can achieve academic success.
“I am setting the bar that so that whoever is right next to me, they have no excuses
and cannot say ‘oh no, I cannot do that,’ because if I can do it, they can do it,
too” Asuncion said.
In addition to Asuncion and Green, four other students from the San Diego Community
College District were chosen for the three academic teams. Jane Ly from Miramar was
named to First Team; Abdisalan Bulhan from City College was named to Second Team;
and Saghar Alavi from City College and Jeremy Mazur from Miramar College were named
to Third Team.
For more information about Phi Theta Kappa and the Honors Program at San Diego Mesa College, contact Honors Co-Coordinator Pegah Motaleb via email at pmotaleb@sdccd.edu or via phone at (619) 388-5926.
Tags: Honors, Phi Theta Kappa, All-California Academic Team, Honors Program
