Spring/Summer 2011
Victor glover remembers as a fifth
grader going to MESA Days at Harvey
Mudd College for mousetrap car and
balsa wood bridge competitions. He remembers
his excitement for math and science. His
MESA advisor told him he could be an engineer and it
sounded cool.
Glover, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander and F-18
pilot, got even more from MESA when he tutored high
school students as an engineering major at Cal Poly San
Luis Obispo. He and other Cal Poly MESA students would
also visit local middle schools to tutor MESA students
there. Bringing concepts he learned in his college engineering
courses and applying them to MESA Day projects so
middle school students could understand is Glover’s most
powerful MESA memory.
“Tutoring made me like school that much more and it
was a good resource for me,” he said. “It sounds selfish,
but it made me a better student because I began to follow
the advice I gave to them. If you look at my transcripts
my grades went from average to deans’ list when I started
tutoring.”
An added bonus—he went on many of those tutoring
trips with another Cal Poly student. She later become
his wife.
Glover knew how important it was for students at that
age to have exposure to college like he did as a MESA middle
school student. So he would not only help the Flamson
Middle School students with MESA day projects and school
assignments, but also talk to them about social topics and
the challenges of adolescence. He enjoyed giving back.
Glover continued on the road of serving when he joined
the Navy in 1998 through a program that allowed him to
complete college first. He earned a bachelor’s degree in
general engineering from Cal Poly in 1999. After Officer’sSchool he later earned master’s degrees in military operational
arts and science, flight test engineering and systems
engineering. He flew 24 combat missions over Iraq during
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Currently, Glover is stationed in Japan with his wife and
four daughters on a two and a half year tour. He’s training
on the new F-18 Super Hornet, but Glover has aspirations to
fly
even higher.
“I want a shot at being an astronaut eventually,” he said.
“Long term, though, I want to teach aeronautical engineering
at a college and be a MESA faculty advisor. That way I’d
still get to do a little bit of all the things I like to do.”
The son of a police officer and bookkeeper, Glover was
the first in his family to finish college. He was offered scholarships
to several out-of-state schools, but wanted to
stay in California and accepted a wrestling scholarship at
Cal Poly. Being a student athlete was difficult at first, but MESA
helped.
“MESA was phenomenal. The club meetings, study hall,
checking out books, tutoring. So many resources at our fingertips,” he said. “When I started (at Cal Poly) I gravitated
toward MESA. I had an affinity to the program because of
that experience in the fifth grade.”
# # #