If this will be your first time participating in Shadow Day, the way it works is simple. Students typically shadow a math, science or engineering professional from your company from approximately 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. During this time, we ask that you provide the best experience possible; this is after all a potential employee. Should you choose to participate, you have the flexibility to structure your Shadow Day agenda to best match your company’s environment.

Shadow Day is a wonderful opportunity to engage, educate
and inspire future Engineers and Scientists.  Specifically:

• Host Engineering & Physical Science Majors
• Showcase Your Firm
• Mentor Potential Employees

Shadow Day 2010 is on Thursday, November 18, from ~9:00 – 2:00 pm.

Please contact Angeline Yang at 619-594-2680 or via e-mail, ayang@projects.sdsu.edu for any inquiries.

Shadow Day 2010 information can also be found at:
http://www.engineering.sdsu.edu/mep/ShadowDay.htm

A LEGO Mindstorm races to return LEGOs back to its homebase.

The 17th Annual MESA Olympics and Robotics Challenge event was held on Saturday, April 17th, 2010 at San Diego City College.

Teams consisting of MESA students at San Diego State University (SDSU), San Diego City College (SDCC), Southwestern Community College (SWC), Morse High School, Imperial Valley High School, Southwest High School, and William Moreno Jr. High School competed against each other in exams that spanned Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, and some Engineering material.

Each campus was also allowed up to 3 teams who would program a LEGO MindStorm NXT robotics kit to compete in 2 missions. The first mission required speed and intelligence to maneuver from a home area through a slalom course. The second mission was a combination control and head-to-head event where robots raced to collect the most LEGO pieces and return them back to their home base under a constrained area and time limit.

Olympics Level 1 winners:

3rd place:  San Diego City College
1 Troast Nick
2 Deleon Mario
3 Suarez Fredy
4 Gonzalez Bretzner

2nd place:  San Diego City College
1 Taylor Kiedra
2 Spencer Ted
3 Ridgell Latina
4 Baldati-rice Yvette

1st place: Southwestern College
1 Sanchez Frank
2 Osuga Takesi
3 Ordonez Jorge
4 Martinez Andrea

Olympics Level 2 winners:

3rd place:  San Diego State University
1 Duenas Brianna
2 Garcia Matthew
3 Alonzo David

2nd place:  Southwestern College
1 Guerrero Hector
2 Viva David
3 Hernandez Gustavo
4 Godinez Edmundo

1st place:  Southwestern College
1 Ascenico Ana
2 Imran Yasmin
3 Svoroski Yari
4 Cacillas Enrique

Olympics Level 3 winners:

3rd place:  San Diego State University
1 Hale Irene
2 Gomez Roberto

2nd place:  San Diego City College
1 Yepiz Frank
2 Huynh Hung
3 Davidson Jessie
4 Nichol Misty

1st place:  Southwestern College
1 Herath Chatura
2 Gianino Mark
3 Bureaud Eric
4 Huang Lihua

Robotics Challenge winners:

3rd place:  San Diego City College
1 Gomez Jorge
2 Long Dana

2nd place:  San Diego City College
1 Troast Nick
2 Gonzalez Bretzner
3 Deleon Mario
4 Suarez Fredy

1st place:  Southwest High School
1 Rodriguez Daniela
2 Martinez Andrew
3 Ramos Frederick

Special thanks:

Prize sponsors:

• The National Science Foundation
• LG Electronics

San Diego MESA Alliance Industry Advisory Board volunteers, MESA Schools Program advisers, San Diego City College faculty, MESA staff, family and friends:

• Brianna Lutes of Infrastructure Engineering Corporation
• Daisy Galeana of Solar Turbines
• Dr. Douglas Fenner of SPAWAR
• Maria Victoria Charles of Hamilton Sundstrand
• Southwest High School MESA Advisor Ms. Sullivan
• William Moreno Jr High School MESA Advisor Mr. Magallanes

Additional photo coverage can be found at the San Diego MESA Alliance Facebook Page.

Flyer

San Diego *MESA* Alliance End of Year Celebration & Awards
Friday, May 14th (1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)
(Pick up parking permit at ranger booth, be sure to put on your dash)

WHO?
MESA IAB (Industry Advisory Board) members and their families
MESA Students from schools, colleges and universities in the San Diego MESA Alliance (and families)
Faculty from schools, colleges and universities in the San Diego MESA Alliance (and families)
SHPE – SWE –AMSA – BIOLOGY CLUB – CHEM CLUB – NSBE – SDS – PASE – others

WHAT?
An End-Of-Year Celebration!!
o Kayaking / Sailing / Volleyball / Swimming / AWARDS / Relaxing / Fun / Food!
o An opportunity for MESA students, college faculty, and local industry (and their families) to get to know one another.

WHEN?
Friday, May 14th (tentative schedule below)
1-3pm food, socializing/networking, kayaking, sailing, fun
3-4pm Student Award Presentations
4-5pm Students vs Faculty/Staff/Industry – Volleyball Game

WHERE?
Southwestern College’s Crown Cove Aquatic Center – Silver Strand State Beach (SSSB)
DIRECTIONS
o Interstate 5 to Palm Ave (Highway 75) West
o Palm Ave (75) West to Highway 75 Silver Strand Highway
o Hwy 75 North to Coronado Cays Blvd/Silver Strand State Beach exit
o Turn left (West) enter Silver Strand State Beach
o Frontage road North to parking lot # 3
o Park in the North East corner of the lot # 3 (must RSVP to invite to obtain parking pass)
o Walk through pedestrian tunnel (East) to CCAC on the Bayside of SSSB

WHY?
WE ALL DESERVE IT!
QUESTIONS? Contact Dr. Raga Bakhiet: 619.482.6381; rbakhiet@swccd.edu

Science Opportunity Day attracted over 168 attendees, which included staff, industry, students, and community members.

The following were on hand behind their respective booths/tables to provide information about their respective enrichment programs, job opportunities, research and development, summer internships, and other opportunities in the science and engineering fields:

• CalTrans
• Goodrich
• IEC
• Raytheon
• Rick Engineering
• San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Lab
• STEP Partnership of San Diego
• Southwestern College MESA program
• Southwestern College Associated Student Organizations

Participation and popcorn were free of charge, with live musical performances.

SPAWAR PEO C41 logos

The 3rd Annual Team SPAWAR MESA Training Academy took place at the SPAWAR Old Town facility in San Diego, California, on Friday, March 19, 2010, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The purpose of the training academy was to expose a diverse group of college level engineering, math, and science students to the world of Civil Service employment and the skills needed to succeed in the workplace as an acquisition professional or engineer.

SPAWAR facilitated discussions and training regarding Employment Programs and Benefits, The New Professional Program, Life as a New Professional, and Director of Organizational Development and Training Management, Dr. Douglas Fenner, presented Leadership/Workforce Development: A Global Literacy Perspective.  Dr. Fenner also recommended several readings to increase students’ self-leadership skills.

A total of 18 MESA students attended the training academy – 6 MESA students from San Diego City College, 6 MESA students from  Southwestern Community College, and 6 MESA Engineering Program/Maximizing Science Potential students from San Diego State University.

The San Diego MESA Alliance would like to thank SPAWAR (especially the efforts of Ms. Pam Field, Dr. Douglas Fenner, Mr. Gary Wang, Mr. Roger Copeland, Mr. Ayax Ramirez, Ms. Sarah Lauff, Mr. Alan Philpott, and their respective colleagues) for their time and incredible work put forth into creating professional development and career relevant learning opportunities for our future – the students.

For more information – Team SPAWAR – PEO C41.

• The résumé
• Interview Preparation
• What to wear (and not!)
• Types of Interviews
• The Interview
• Practice Questions
• Where to look for guidance
• Additional Resources

Their presentation can be download here.

Representatives from Infrastructure Engineering Corporation, Northrop Grumman, and San Diego Gas & Electric/Sempra Energy also hosted appointments for one-on-one mock interviews (at 30 minutes), and resume critiques/cover letter critiques (at 30 minutes).

The presentation and workshops were strongly recommended to those students interested in applying for the annual MESA/NSF Summer Team Internships.

Photo coverage from the event can be found at the SDMA Facebook page and a very special thanks goes to our industry volunteers and their respective companies for their time and continued support of the MESA programs. Thank you for furthering the development of our future engineers and scientists.

Gallery:

Math, engineering and science event brings middle and high school students to SDSU.

Read the story about the San Diego MESA Schools Program’s MESA Day event at SDSU NewsCenter.

The SWC MESA Program’s NSF Grant, in collaboration with San Diego City College and SDSU, will be offering our students paid internships (2 or more students per company or institute). You may already be working with Ms. Angeline Yang to coordinate summer internships with our students. Science Opportunity Day is yet another venue to connect you with our students who will be tomorrow’s STEM workforce…..

Representatives from the different student clubs, universities and the science/engineering industries will be on hand to talk to students about enrichment programs, job opportunities, research and development, summer internships and exciting careers in science/engineering. We will also have popcorn and music!

Participation is free of charge!

Please contact Dr. Raga Bakhiet to reserve tables and request parking permits.
Raga M. Bakhiet, Ph.D.
Director, Mathematics, Science, Engineering Achievement (MESA) Program
email: rbakhiet@swccd.edu; phone: (619) 482-6381

The Strengths Quest seminar presented by Mr. Rafael Alvarez consisted of Reviewing Strengths (resulting from an online Strengths Quest test via the Gallup Organization), a Scavenger Hunt, Common Strengths lecture, and a homework assignment on visual expression. Students then broke into teams to complete a LEGO challenge.

As the afternoon turned into late evening, students mingled around the bonfire to conclude the night.

Mr. Rafael Alvarez continued the Strengths Quest seminar with lectures on how to connect strengths to future planning and life/career goals, as a well as a workshop on creating a cover/interest letter(s). SDSU MEP alumna and current industry member from IEC, Ms. Dolores Ventura, led a seminar on Self-Leadership to continue the 2nd day of activities.

Students who dared were treated to the Zip Line activity in which a pulley is suspended on a cable mounted on an incline. Afterwards, students returned to complete team challenges consisting of building toothpick bridges and pitting them in several competitions based on aesthetics and weight capacity, as well as a PowerPoint presentation that culminated the lessons learned from the weekend.

The night again concluded with the roasting of marshmallows around a bonfire.

The last day was reserved for the conclusion of the team challenge which consisted of conducting a PowerPoint presentation on specific topics, as the annual Leadership Summit came to an end.

3rd place cumulative competition winners:

Jose Bojorquez
Mario Deleon
Josephine Briallante
Zeke Belle

2nd place cumulative competition winners:

Nermin Hamawandi
Jade Handy
Fredy Suarez
Adrian Deleon

1st place cumulative competition winners:

Nicholas Troast
Myrna Martinez
Bretzner Gonzalez
Maria Lemus

Photo coverage from the event can be found at the SDMA Facebook page and a very special thanks goes to Ms. Dolores Ventura for her presentation and continued support of the MESA program and PBS&J for allowing the Leadership Summit to take place with its grant award to SDSU MEP.

If you are applying to the NSF MESA Summer Team Internship Program or any other job/internships for Summer 2010 it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you attend this event from 12:45p-2:00p and sign up for a 30 minute Mock Interview and 30 minute Resume and Cover Letter Critique.  NSF MESA Summer Team Applicants and MEP/MSP students will be given priority for Mock Interviews and Resume and Cover Letter Critiques. All students are invited to attend the resume and cover letter presentation by Northrop Grumman from 1-2p.

This workshop will begin with a short presentation by Industry to highlight important considerations in interviewing for a job.  Some students will then get their resume and cover letter critiqued and do a mock interview with industry.