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.
June 28, 2022
At the age of 19, during her senior year of high school, Lourd Yousef had to flee her home in Aleppo, Syria. She arrived in the United States and immediately started working three different retail jobs to help support her family, and create a new life from nothing. She eventually secured a higher-wage job at an insurance company call center, which allowed her to have afternoons free, so that she could enroll in college classes and complete her education.
“I knew that furthering my education was the best way to increase my income, support my family and create a future legacy of my own,” Lourd stated.
She quickly realized many jobs require a degree, most especially higher paying jobs outside of the retail industry. She wanted to attend college at a campus with a diverse community where she could increase her understanding of the English language, have top rated professors, and attend a wide variety of classes during the afternoon and evening hours. San Diego Mesa College became Lourd’s top choice, and she enrolled in Mesa’s Associate Degree to Transfer program in order to obtain an Associate’s Degree in Business.
During her three years at Mesa, Lourd could often be found in the Library/Learning Resource Center (LRC) after work, where the environment was peaceful and conducive to studying. Lourd appreciated the fact that there was always a librarian or other staff member available to answer questions, and Lourd often remained in the LRC until closing time. The writing skills that Lourd gained during her time at Mesa eventually led to a promotion at the insurance company where she still works, first to the Operations Management team, and then the Sales team in April 2022. She is currently working in Account Management, and hopes to become an Executive Account Manager in the future.
Graduating from Mesa College meant a lot to Lourd, as it was her first time graduating, participating in Commencement, and seeing the results of her hard work and long nights of studying, usually after long days at work. She credits her success to the support of her family, her great professors, and the program she was offered at Mesa. Although she did not find a lot of free time during her full-time job and full-time school phase, she now takes a little more time to indulge in one of her passions: golfing. Her future plans include planning to settle down and stay in the US, but other than that, she will go wherever life takes her.
Lourd also credits her professors as being her role models, and would like to personally thank Accounting Professor Joseph Preimesberger with the following message: “Thank you for making me love accounting with the simple and easy way you taught it. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us. You cared about the student success and understanding, which I am grateful for, especially during Covid. Hopefully we will cross paths either at National University, or on the golf course one day. Thank you, Lourd”
Lourd graduated Mesa in Fall 2021 and is currently continuing her education at National University in order to obtain her Bachelor’s degree in Finance.
Learn more about Mesa College’s Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) Program.
Tags: Alumni, outreach-profile
Jennifer Nichols Kearns
Director of Communications
jnkearns@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2759
On Monday, March 11, Mesa Dramatic Arts majors were thrilled when five Mesa College alumni came to speak with current students about their journey in the performing arts thus far. The panel, titled Life Post Mesa in the Performing Arts: Transfer and more, was organized by Drama Professor George Ye’. He explained that he wanted to show current students a “cross section of people with different pathways.”
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 Houston Texans continue to pick from the San Francisco 49ers’ coaching staff as DeMeco Ryans forms his new crew with the AFC South. According to Aaron Wilson from KPRC-TV, the Texans are hiring 49ers defensive quality control coach Stephen Adegoke as their new safeties coach.
