While growing up undocumented, Verónica Guajardo didn’t see a place for herself in STEM. Now, she’s a researcher who’s helping students like herself find their own paths.

…Community college really set the foundation for how I would learn and how I would think and the goal-setting that I would develop once I got to the other graduate degrees or any other type of degree.

I was an alum of the [MESA] program at my community college — a technology, mathematics, engineering science achievement program that began in California in the ’70s. [Later, I became] a MESA director in California. My job was to look for students who were interested in STEM majors, get their educational plans going and see them transfer and get that STEM degree.

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