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.
August 9, 2018
Four San Diego Mesa College students, Alexander Beltzer-Sweeney, Ana Parra, Rob Ronayne and Alex Hewett, have been selected to participate in the National Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program. The National Community College Aerospace Scholars, or NCAS, program is an educational experience for community college students interested in exploring careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The program provides selected students with a four-day, in-person learning experience at a NASA center. NCAS gives community college STEM students an authentic NASA experience and encourages them to finish a 2-year degree or transfer to a 4-year university to pursue a NASA-related field or career. Acting Program Manager for the Title III HSI STEM Conexiones, Leticia Lopez, congratulated the four Mesa’s NASA Scholars and is certain that just like former winners (Naylynn Tanon and Shawn Cvetezar), these four students will keep this tradition going for many years to come, with recruiting and mentoring new student award recipients. She told the four NCAS that the STEM Conexiones Program, faculty mentors and staff are ready to support them every step of the way. Beltzer-Sweeney, Parra, Ronayne and Hewett have experienced the support of the STEM Conexiones Program and the support of amazing faculty like Professor Irena Stojimirovic. Alexander Beltzer-Sweeney mentioned that since he came to Mesa College, he has been fortunate enough to work with faculty that have spent their time fostering a positive learning environment. While taking one of Professor Stojimirovic class, Beltzer-Sweeney remembers that it was by her introduction that he first met the Boyce Research Initiatives and Educational Foundation, where he spent the last two years conducting and publishing peer-reviewed binary star research at Mesa College. Parra has a bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology, but was inspired by the show “Cosmos” to pursue an interest in astronomy. She is also in the process of becoming a published Journal author. Hewett is in his first year of college and spends his days studying at the STEM Center. He is a Physics major who encourages other students to get involved on campus as he says that this creates an environment of networking that you can’t get in class. Ronayne is a Peer Mentor in the STEM Center and was encouraged by Professor Stojimirovic and his peers to apply for the program. He hopes that this experience will open new career opportunities as he pursues to one day work for NASA. Aside from taking classes and becoming NCAS, these students are in the process of getting the Astronomy Club back together. Their mission is to develop a community for those interested in any aspect of astronomy. That can range from someone who is interested in learning about the stars and planets, to those who are interested in conducting research with the hope of continuing a career in the astronomy field.
Tags: NCAS Scholars, STEM Scholars, 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.
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.
