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.
February 23, 2024
First privately owned spacecraft to touch down on the moon
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.
“This journey takes much longer due to the many challenges, setbacks and delays,” Mr. Romero said in Intuitive Machines’ press kit for the mission. “Traveling the daunting, wine-dark sea repeatedly tests his mettle, yet ultimately, Odysseus proves worthy and sticks the landing back home after 10 years.”
Mario attending Mesa from 2013 until 2015 as an Astronomy/Astrophysics major, where he started his journey in higher education by taking Astronomy 101 and Math 36. While at Mesa, he helped form the Student Veteran Organization (SVO) and advocated for an on-campus Veteran Resource Center. While at Mesa, Mario also dedicated his time to helping homeless and food insecure veterans and children, and in 2015, was awarded the ABC10 News Salute to Heroes Award for San Diego veterans. Additionally, in 2015, Mario was part of a Mesa College student delegation that visited Washington D.C. to advocate for student veterans and other issues.
After Mesa, he transferred and graduated from Columbia with a Bachelors in Pure Mathematics and a Master’s Degree from U.H. Clearlake in Systems Engineering, and is now an Assembly, Integration, and Test Engineer for Intuitive Machines. Not only was Mario able to work on the project, but also was able to name it after winning a contest amongst other Intuitive Machines employees. He said the travels of the hero of the “Odyssey,” the ancient Greek epic poem, provided an apt analogy for the lunar mission.
Sources for this story included the Houston Chronicle, the San Diego Mesa College 2018-19 Annual Report and the June 1015 issue of the President’s Monday on the Mesa Newsletter.
To learn about Mesa’s Academic & Career Pathway in Engineering, Math, & Sciences.
Learn more about the San Diego Mesa College Alumni Network.
Tags: Alumni, Engineering, STEM
Jennifer Nichols Kearns
Director of Communications
jnkearns@sdccd.edu
(619) 388-2759
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.
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.
