Northrop Grumman representatives Desiree Galenti and Beilee Tracey facilitated a presentation on ‘Interviewing for a Job’ on Monday, March 15, 2010 at San Diego State University Career Services from 1:00 – 4:00 pm.

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).

MESA students at San Diego City College and Southwestern Community College, MESA Engineering Program and Maximizing Science Potential students at San Diego State University can apply for a summer team internship starting NOW!

Through the San Diego MESA Alliance, college students will have a unique experience to witness the “real world” of work in an engineering or scientific environment. Your involvement will provide a great opportunity for our up and coming students to “test the waters” in a field of their interest and see first-hand how classroom skills relate to the workplace.

What better way to do that, than observe and work with a professional in action! You the employer, get to make a positive impact on the lives of students; future engineers and scientists!

More information can be found at http://www.engineering.sdsu.edu/mep/ShadowDay.htm

The Caterpillar Latino Connection (CLC), Solar Chapter affinity group hosted a “Shadow Day” event on Friday, October 23.

This event was organized to provide engineering students with an opportunity to experience a typical workday at Solar Turbines and learn about the various technical/engineering disciplines available. This was an all day event held simultaneously at the two Solar facilities in San Diego (Harbor Drive and Kearny Mesa), where each student participated in two different shadow sessions with a different mentor from a different discipline.

Teams of MESA & SPSD students design “buoyancy shoes”, and student “shoe pilots” race across the length of the pool. Competition allows students to gain experience at applying applying the engineering design process; solving open-ended problems.

This unique conference is expected to enhance the professional development of tomorrow’s leaders. The purpose of the conference was to improve chapter effectiveness, improve communication between stakeholders – students, industry and MESA staff, and promote leadership development. The conference addressed chapter basics, joint planning, community college-university-industry relationships, ethics, and leadership training. See the conference agenda for specific sessions.

With the goal of engaging potential leaders in professional development activities, PBS&J recently granted a $5,000 contribution to the Math, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) Alliance in support of MESA’s annual leadership summit. Funding was provided through The PBSJ Foundation, Inc.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to the San Diego MESA Alliance (SDMA) provided stipends for 36 student interns (12 students in MESA/MEP program at each campus – San Diego City College, San Diego State University, and Southwestern Community College) this summer at various projects in science and engineering firms in, but not limited to, San Diego. Some companies decided to compensate the interns themselves separate of our provided stipend and thus allow other students opportunities to partake in an internship.

This conference was sponsored by San Diego Gas & Electric, the College of Engineering at San Diego State University, and the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program, a service mark of the University of California Regents.

The conference provided attendees with a detailed look at the shortage of highly qualified STEM professionals in the San Diego Region and what one national program model, MESA, is doing to address it.

The 16th Annual Calculator Olympics and Robotics Challenge event was held on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 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), and participating schools from Imperial Valley and San Diego MESA Schools Programs competed against each other in exams that included Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, and some Engineering material.

Each school was also allowed 1-2 teams who would program a LEGO Mindstorm NXT robotics kit to compete in2 missions. The first mission required speed and intelligence to maneuver through each checkpoint correctly. The second mission was a head-to-head competition in that robots raced to collect the most LEGO pieces under a constrained area and time limit.