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.
April 2, 2018
San Diego Mesa College Foundation was selected to receive a generous grant from the Science & Technology Grants Program from the San Diego Foundation on January 15, 2018. This funded the opportunity for Mesa College STEM students to participate in a field trip on Friday, March 2, 2018 entitled Tierra Excursion. The trip included a tour of Wild Willow Farm, a sustainable farm with educational resources, and a visit to the Tijuana River Estuary, an area of land in Imperial Beach where the Tijuana River meets the Pacific Ocean.
Wild Willow Farm offered the STEM scholars the opportunity to learn about sustainable management and business practices, and sustainable efforts relative to the environment. Their time at the farm was divided into four sections – kid’s garden, herbs and history, plants and their uses, and the earthworm – in order for the students to learn about how profits are generated through sustainable farm work. Experiencing a day of work at this organization gave some of the STEM scholars the chance to envision themselves in their future careers. STEM scholar and Environmental Engineer Major Flavia DePlachett shared, “If not for these field trips, I would not be able to see how vast my options are as a STEM major… The exposure that these field trips provide is a great chance for us students to become excellent professionals by choosing what matches our goals and personalities the best.”
Through their experience, students were also
able to draw connections between the field trip to the farm and larger concepts in
life. STEM Scholar and Molecular Biology Neuroscience Major Tahmina Habibzada stated,
“A healthy garden is like a healthy mind – the more time and effort we put into ourselves
the better we become.”
Students also gained knowledge about particular species from their visit to the Tijuana River Estuary where they spoke with Rangers about migratory patterns of birds in the United States and outer regions. After their time with the Ranger, students were encouraged to practice their “elevator speech” with their fellow classmates.
These experiences from the Tierra Excursion field trip would not have been possible, if not for the grant. Students had the opportunity to apply and receive one of 13 available $5,000 STEM Stipend for spring 2018. As a condition of the grant, students must attend five out of six field trips, be enrolled in at least one class at San Diego Mesa College, be a STEM major or hold interest in a STEM program. Up to 35 additional students were able to qualify for all-expense paid STEM career field trips. Additional funding under the HSI/Title III STEM Conexiones Program was provided for these initiatives. To learn more, please contact HIS Grant Manager Dr. Leticia Lopez at llopez@sdccd.edu.
Tags: Tierra Excursion, STEM Students, Wild Willow Farm, Tijuana River Estuary, STEM, STEM Scholars, STEM Field Trip, STEM Conexiones
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.
