During the past four years, when the going got tough, UC San Diego bioengineering major Ismael Munoz knew he could always rely on his fellow IDEA Scholars for encouragement and a sense of community. “I see my peers doing crazy awesome projects and that motivates me to excel,” he said. “We encourage each other.”
On a hot, dusty Friday evening in May, a caravan of five cars packed with UC San Diego students rolled onto FAR site in the Mojave Desert – a 10-acre property established by the Friends of Amateur Rocketry, Inc. to safely test and launch rockets. It took three tries, but the UC San Diego chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space were able to successfully test the latest version of their 3D-printed rocket engine.
Enhancing education through technology is a passion of Jeff Elman’s. “My first job after college was as a high school teacher in an area of Boston where few kids went to college,” said the UC San Diego professor of cognitive science and former dean of the Division of Social Sciences. “My love for teaching and learning has continued ever since. But over the years, I’ve become increasingly aware that there’s often a mismatch between what we know from the science of learning and the way we actually teach. Online platforms and the use of technology are not silver bullets—after all, they can be misused—but they do open up exciting new educational possibilities.”
Some 8,364 graduating students of the University of California, San Diego will gather to hear commencement speeches from dynamic speakers such as alumnus J. Craig Venter, a biochemist, geneticist and entrepreneur; Frank Bruni, New York Times op-ed columnist; alumnus Dan Santat, author and illustrator; and Christina Figueres, United Nations Executive Secretary. The students will participate in the campus’s 11 commencement events, with the majority of ceremonies taking place June 13-14, preceded by the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences May 16 and the School of Medicine’s June 7 graduation.
She fell in love with the neuron during her first semester in college, and from there her passion for science took off with a bang. As a trained scientist, Mayim Bialik’s portrayal of neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” comes naturally. The show is currently the top-rated comedic television series in the nation, and Bialik uses her celebrity to serve as a female role model and advocate for STEM education (science, technology, engineering and math), a cause she feel strongly about.
LaWana Richmond has a passion for developing human potential. She makes time outside of her role as senior business analyst at UC San Diego to engage staff and support the goals of team members, from serving as chair of the UC San Diego Staff Association to chartering a Toastmaster’s International group on campus.
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