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Category: MESA Activities

2009 Walk On Water Competition

Published October 10, 2009 by Eric Pamintuan

The 2009 Walk on Water competition was held on Saturday, October 10, 2009 at the Southwestern Community College swimming pool, from 10:00 – 2:00 PM.

There were 75 total attendees, with 14 total teams from La Jolla high school, San Diego City College, Southwestern Community College, San Diego State University, and high schools within the San Diego MESA Schools Program.

Teams of MESA students designed “buoyancy shoes”, and student “shoe pilots” race across the length of the pool. The competition allows students to gain experience at applying applying the engineering design process; solving open-ended problems. Most campuses respective MESA programs’ refunded costs to build the buoyancy shoes that teams created to ‘walk on water’ up to $100.

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2009-2010 San Diego Region Joint Planning Conference for Engineering and Science Chapters

Published August 21, 2009 by Eric Pamintuan

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.

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PBS&J Donates $5,000

Published August 20, 2009 by Eric Pamintuan

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.

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2009 NSF/MESA Summer Team Internship Luncheon

Published August 19, 2009 by Eric Pamintuan

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.

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16th Annual Olympics & Robotics Competition

Published April 20, 2009 by Eric Pamintuan

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 in 2 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.

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MESA/Caltrans Training Academy

Published March 27, 2009 by Eric Pamintuan

Caltrans hosted the MESA Training Academy on March 27, 2009 from 9:00 – 4:00 pm.

Chris Thomas provided an introduction to transportation engineering at their district office in Old Town, fielding questions from students as well as discussing topics such as, ‘what is transportation engineering’, ‘what skills are needed’, ‘how does a project get built’, ‘what needs to be considered when designing a project’, amongst other topics.

Dimitar Peev led a hands on design exercise that allowed students to design a six lane freeway using CADD. Students were provided and lunch and continued the training academy at the transportation management center site where Everett Townsend gave students a tour of the TMC and facilitated a hands on activity that demonstrated real time monitoring and traffic operations strategies, such as incident management, ramp metering and reversible/managed lanes.

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College Shadow Day

Published March 26, 2009 by Eric Pamintuan

On February 10, 2011, 22 middle and high school students from schools within the San Diego and Imperial Valley MESA Schools Programs visited the San Diego State University (SDSU) campus.

The students were matched with their university counterparts in the SDSU MESA Engineering & Maximizing Science Potential program, based on major and interests.

The SDSU students allowed the middle and high schoolers to ‘shadow’ them throughout the day. That meant bringing them along to classes, visiting labs, touring the beautiful campus, and sharing their college experience (both good and bad). For many of these middle and high school students, this was their first college experience and their first time on a college campus.

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Mock Interview, and Resume and Cover Letter Critique

Published March 3, 2009 by Eric Pamintuan

Northrop Grumman representatives Desiree Galenti and Amanda Whipple facilitated a presentation on ‘Interviewing for a Job’.

Representatives from Infrastructure Engineering Corporation, the Navy, Northrop Grumman, and Solar Turbines also hosted appointments for one-on-one mock interviews, resume critiques, and cover letter critiques.

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8th Annual Leadership Summit

Published March 1, 2009 by Eric Pamintuan

The 8th annual Leadership Summit took place at the Indian Hills Camp in Jamul on the weekend of February 27 – March 1, 2009. Students from San Diego City College, San Diego State University, Southwestern College, Ventura College, and various high schools involved in the Imperial Valley MESA Schools Program, participated in various competitions that promoted the use of their leadership skills and various strengths attributes.

A very special thanks goes out to SDSU MEP alumna Ms. Dolores Ventura of IEC for her presentation and continued support of the MESA program, as well as PBS&J – without their grant award the Leadership Summit would not be possible. Thank you.

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