Excerpt from Turning on the Lights: Part III.1 Knowing How to Approach the Learning – Overview
What difference does it make to know how to effectively approach the learning? It is the difference between succeeding in college or dropping out of school. This was experienced by MESA Creator Katya Echazarreta. Katya was a Latina student, with a passion for space exploration and the goal of working for NASA. She was in the top 5% of students in California when she graduated from high school, based on her academic achievement and assessment scores, and she was admitted to many top universities. However, she was unable to go to any of her top schools because her family was financially disadvantaged and could not afford paying for her tuition. It was heartbreaking for Katya. Her best option was to attend a community college, and later transfer to a university. But, for Katya, the idea of attending a community college was embarrassing because “all she heard from other students in high school about community college were jokes about failure students simply wasting time there like they did in high school.” She was very wrong.
Attending San Diego City College (SDCC) and finding my MESA Program was the best thing that happened to Katya. She chose to major in electrical engineering. Although the SDCC classes were more challenging than she expected, Katya easily excelled at SDCC, and she found herself competing with another Latino student in her classes. Both became straight A students, except that the Latino student usually earned higher test scores compared to Katya. This continued until they reached the level in which engineering students typically take Calculus II and Physics Mechanics in the same semester, but they both quickly learned that they did not have the academic skills required to succeed in physics. They each failed the first physics exam! While they had many strengths, the straight A students discovered that they too had gaps. It was a wakeup call for Katya because she had never failed an exam, and it scared her. This is the moment when Katya found the MESA Program. Both students visited me together to learn how MESA could help them with their physics challenge. I shared with them that the secret to success in physics and all other classes was the learning culture, which is what makes my MESA program the best! Unfortunately, only Katya believed me. The Latino student was too stubborn, and he felt that he could succeed on his own, without the help of the MESA learning culture. Sadly, he was very wrong. He failed the second physics exam, and he failed both Physics Mechanics and Calculus II. He then dropped out of SDCC after the following semester. Meanwhile, Katya immediately joined our MESA Program, and after being trained in the learning culture, she earned a perfect score on the second physics exam. It was also the most difficult physics exam for the semester, yet she made the largest improvement in the class from the first to the second exam. Her professor was so proud of her. He believed that her hard work was finally paying off. What he did not know was that Katya was now a MESA Creator, and that the reason for her sudden mastery of physics was the learning culture, because she was trained to know how to effectively approach the learning!
As a MESA Creator, Katya was empowered with the learning culture to create her own success, and she loved the experience. According to Katya, she “went from a great student to an ambitious woman with great potential.” This time she was right! She earned A grades in both Calculus II and Physics Mechanics, and she continued to excel in all of her classes until she transferred to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), one of her top-choice schools. Along the way, Katya earned a two-year $10,000 scholarship at SDCC, sponsored by Price Philanthropies; she became a MESA Female Student of the Year; she received a University of California Regents Scholarship for transfer students, and she was awarded a three-year, $40,000 Jack Kent Cook Foundation Transfer Scholarship. Not surprisingly, Katya succeeded at UCLA like a MESA Creator, and she took advantage of the many opportunities offered there, leading to an internship with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)! Katya earned a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UCLA, and she became an electrical engineer at JPL. It was another dream come true for her. Enjoy meeting Katya and learning her learning culture story at tinyurl.com/27csznx5.
Katya has also become an “Engineering/Science Communicator” with the goal of helping others achieve their career goals. She is proud of her Mexican roots, and she uses her online blog to capture her journey as a woman in STEM to show other women that they too can lead a successful career without sacrificing what makes them perfectly unique. Follow Katya at www.katechazarreta.com.
Katya Echazarreta is a STEM pioneer and activist. While at JPL, she contributed to several NASA missions, including the Mars rover Perseverance, and she is completing her master’s studies in electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. In June 2022, Katya became the first Mexican-born and youngest female astronaut aboard the Blue Origin New Shepard-21 mission. This feat was immortalized when Katya was honored during the 2023 International Women’s Day, along with an incredible group of talented women in STEM, in being presented with a new role model Barbie in her image to inspire young girls worldwide to fight to achieve their dreams. Katya was selected as a “2023 Top 100 most powerful women in Mexico” by Forbes Mexico, in recognition of her many achievements and contributions to developing the space industry in Mexico.