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 31, 2019
With the passing of each academic year, Mesa College continues to be honored by the academic and professional achievements of our past and present Olympians. Those include the merits and accolades of our developing scientists in the Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program, which supports scholars from historically underrepresented backgrounds as they plan to transfer and earn a bachelor’s degree in biomedical or behavioral science.
This past fall in Anaheim, CA, one of Mesa College’s Bridges Scholars, Kevin Cortez competed alongside nearly 2,100 undergraduate and graduate student researchers at the 2019 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). His research, entitled “Inhibitory Effects of Fatty Acid Ester Vitamin C Derivatives on Rabbit Muscle Phosphofructokinase-1,” earned him a top award in Biochemistry at the Conference, making him one of five Mesa Bridges scholars to receive a research award at a National Conference in the past five years.
Our other Bridges Scholars who had their research abstracts accepted and presented at ABRCMS 2019 include Pixie Rose, Daniel Woerner, Stephanie Osuocha, and Francheska Salazar.
Previous Conference winners include Carolina Castaneda at ABRCMS in 2017, Emmanuel Gutierrez at SACNAS in 2016, Samantha Barrera at SACNAS in 2015, and Adam Abdi at ABRCMS in 2015. Like Cortez, these students worked with Program Director, Dr. Edward Alexander, to research the synthesis of fatty acid derivatives of Vitamin C and analyze the compounds’ inhibition properties. Recognizing that these compounds inhibit the enzymes that metabolize glucose, the students’ work implicates Vitamin C derivatives as a component of a potential anti-cancer drug.
Many of our students who have benefited from the Bridges Program’s academic enrichment and support in research have gone on to pursue undergraduate and graduate studies at institutions across the nation. They are researchers, doctors, psychologists, biologists, chemists, and always, our Bridges Scholars. Their accomplishments are a great honor for Mesa College and our Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program.
The Bridges to the Baccalaureate program is currently recruiting talented science undergraduates who are committed to pursuing an advanced degree in the biomedical or behavioral sciences. The program includes faculty mentoring, possible summer salaries for research training in a science laboratory, funding to attend professional conferences, networking opportunities, and more. Visit the Bridges to Baccalaureate page on the Mesa College website to learn more and see if you meet the eligibility requirements to apply, or contact Mesa Bridges’ Program Director, Dr. Edward Alexander (ealexand@sdccd.edu) with any questions.
Tags: STEM, Student Research, Bridges to the Baccalaureate
Jennifer Nichols Kearns
Director of Communications
jnkearns@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2759
Edward Alexander, Ph.D.
Program Director, Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program
ealexand@sdccd.edu
NASA has selected 40 undergraduate students for the first year of its Europa ICONS (Inspiring Clipper: Opportunities for Next-generation Scientists) internship program, supporting the agency’s Europa Clipper mission. Europa ICONS matches students with mentors from the mission’s science team for a 10-week program to conduct original scientific research on topics related to the mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa.
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 San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC) named Mesa's Computer Information Science program is now a Verified Program of Computing Talent! Programs were verified as part of a rigorous evaluation process led by Advancing San Diego, the flagship program of EDC's Talent Initiatives, which serves to double the production of skilled workers in San Diego while prioritizing historically underrepresented populations in the innovation economy.
