Excerpt from San Diego City College MESA – A Learning Culture:
Taking STEM Education to a New Level (Summer 2017)
BEFORE MESA
I was born and raised in Tijuana, Mexico, and I am a first-generation college student. After graduating from high school in Tijuana, I crossed the U.S.-Mexico border daily into San Diego seeking a better education. I began my college studies in English as a second language classes at Southwestern College. Then my best friend encouraged me to take classes at City College and join the MESA Program. My friend was a MESA Creator, and he described MESA as a very motivating program with many opportunities for internships and scholarships. So I decided to come to City College to join MESA and take the prerequisite courses needed for transfer to a four-year university. My Tijuana- to-San Diego commute continued until I was accepted for transfer.
WHAT THE MESA LEARNING CULTURE MEANS TO ME
MESA is everything I expected and more. MESA provides academic and counseling support, opportunities for networking, and lots of information about research and internship programs. But more importantly, MESA provides a learning culture, and MESA is family! The strategies in the MESA culture were the key foundation in my study system for successfully passing the challenging STEM classes. With MESA’s support, I developed my leadership skills by starting the pre-med club AMSA (American Medical Student Association), and I served as the AMSA President for two years. I also had the opportunity to attend a MESA workshop about research programs. This was my first exposure to such important opportunities which make research available to many undergraduate students in this country, while research opportunities are scarce in Mexico. I have now participated in five different research programs, including the Introduction to Cancer Research Careers Program at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland in 2016, and I have gained lots of hands-on biomedical research experience. As a result, the MESA program was the starting point to my career pathway for becoming a researcher in the biomedical sciences. Through the MESA culture, I have also learned the secret to success, a.k.a. African Village Story, which reminds us that to truly achieve success in anything in life, we must want it as much as we want to breathe; and MESA has taught me the meaning of self-advocacy, which inspires and motivates me to fight for myself to achieve my life goals.
MY FUTURE
I transferred to the University of California, San Diego in Fall 2015, and I earned my Bachelor of Science degree in General Biology in June 2017. I will begin the Ph.D. program in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Texas, Southwestern in Fall 2017. My future goal is to become a principal investigator to advance research in biomedical sciences. I also plan to create research opportunities for minorities, and I plan to establish binational research programs in the sciences between the U.S and Mexico.
MY ADVICE
Never be a self-saboteur, always choose to be a Creator. Have an open mind for opportunities because you never know how those opportunities will help you in your professional career in the future. Take full advantage of opportunities in the MESA Program, including strategies for studying, workshops, scholarships, summer internships and research programs, and more. Have a good relationship with your professors, who can also help you by writing letters of recommendation for scholarships and internships. Finally, never give up, and don’t let anyone tell you, “You can’t do it.” Always use self-advocacy: fight until you accomplish your goals!
Mauricio Marquez Palencia transferred from San Diego City College to the University of California San Diego, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. He also earned a Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Sciences/Cancer Biology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He is currently a Scientist I Cancer Biology with Generate:Biomedicines.